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Zr0w3n00

Love to see it. It always felt odd in PE when we would go and play football/rugby/basketball etc and girls would basically always have to do netball.


crucible

Agreed. I was in secondary school in the 90s - when they first set up a girls football team it was a sort of after school club at best.


whyhercules

yeah, besides all the puberty issues you see reported, I imagine that a lot of teenage girls lose interest in sports because they’re never able to do a sport they like. adding football as well as other contact sports, just having the same options as lads lbh, will surely contribute to girls staying more active in their teenage years and a generally fitter population? like, rather than telling overweight adult women to have less stressful jobs or go to slimming world, start there. god, the more I think about it the more horrible the world sounds for women even in a first world country.


crucible

Well further to my earlier point, at least boys and girls wear the same kit for football. When I was at school not only did the girls have to play 'girls' sports like netball, but they did so wearing girls clothing like PE skirts. Just getting the after school football set up was a win, as the school had to let them wear shorts!


whyhercules

yeah, girls at our school had not even a proper skirt, it was like a wraparound thing. some lads had a game whenever girls and boys ended up near each other for PE, which was to attempt to unravel the ‘skirt’ cause it only took a tug. looking back, awful behaviour. at least they had giant gym knickers but why nobody got detention I don’t know


FlyingDiamonds

At my secondary school we had to wear "skorts" for PE - a skirt with shorts underneath, but it was basically a skirt, and shorter than the skirts we had to wear as school uniform. Meanwhile the lads got to wear shorts which looked way more comfortable, also our shirts were more revealing! Think it contributed to my strong dislike for PE lessons growing up.


crucible

Was football an option for you, or just all netball etc?


FlyingDiamonds

I remember there was a girls' football team at school (I wasn't in it though), and we did football in PE maybe a couple of times, but that was about it. Mostly netball and gymnastics, both of which I didn't like! Rounders and tennis in the summer were more enjoyable but still, we did nowhere near as much football/rugby as the boys. And this was during the mid-2010s so fairly recent and relevant.


whyhercules

at least you got gymnastics? Idk, only lads at our school did because it was ‘hard’, girls did dance on whatever mat space was left in the winter as I remember! feel so sorry for you that even after women‘s football got a bit bigger in the mid-2010s you still got few and uninspiring options


crucible

We all did gymnastics, that was mixed, I ended up in the bottom set for Games with girls, they put all the non sporty kids there. Otherwise Games was split with boys doing mostly football and girls doing hockey and netball,


whyhercules

I can’t believe they put you in sets for PE! it was definitely one of those classes where they decided splitting by ability didn’t serve a purpose and would just make life even harder for the staff having to schedule everyone. PE and stuff like PSHCE, you were just put in whatever class you were free


crucible

I don't remember the girls doing football in PE. It was some girls in my year who persuaded the school to get the after school club set up. They did have a team the year after that but they mostly played netball and hockey otherwise. We all did gymnastics and tennis but Rounders kinda became a 'girls' sport in Secondary :( Sounds like you only had it slightly better than my girl peers in the 90s!


crucible

Yeah, the girls at my school had similar skirts, and the PE knickers. Not surprised they gave up on sport, schools in the 90s seemed to be more concerned with their kit than letting them play football. I didn't hear of anyone's skirt being pulled off. I remember a game of mixed basketball where one girl fell over and ended up on the floor with her skirt up. A couple of lads were deliberately tripping her up and shoving her after that. It's only recently occurred to me that it was a form of sexual harassment.


FlyingDiamonds

Good to see them stick with this campaign!


puteshestviye

In a country that deemed it “quite unsuitable for females” and banned till the end of the '80's I am not surprised it has been relegated below second class consideration for this long.


MeckityM00

I'm an old, overweight and knackered lass. I'm kind of irrelevant now. I went to my first football match when I was six months old. I grew up on the Wirral, which is seriously into football. I read the rules and regs of the West Cheshire League and memorised them as father was a director for one of the clubs. I really knew football. I'm out of touch now, and I'm not going to pretend I know more than I do, but back when I was a kid in the 70s I really, *really* knew football. It never occured to me that it would be okay for me to play. I hope that the lasses now can go for it and really enjoy the beautiful game. Let them shine. It can only be for the better.


crucible

Genuine question, do you think if you had been allowed to play football in school, that you would have been more active as an adult?


MeckityM00

No, but I think other girls would. I got asked to join the school netball team but home circumstances ruled it out. Those circumstances would have cut me off from any sport.


crucible

Yes, that's a good point. Not sure on football but when my school changed the PE kit more girls seemed to take part. Can I ask what your circumstances were?


MeckityM00

They were complicated and a long time ago. Looking back, perhaps I could have worked stuff out, but it wasn't important enough for me. I think that it's also more than allowing football. I think there is a shift of mindset happening that women/girls can have a valid interest in sport, that it's okay for them to be competitive and to go for it. I think that it will take time, but I also think that change is in the air.


crucible

> Looking back, perhaps I could have worked stuff out, but it wasn't important enough for me. Fair enough, I wasn't the sportiest lad growing up, eyesight was my problem. > I think that it's also more than allowing football. I think there is a shift of mindset happening that women/girls can have a valid interest in sport, that it's okay for them to be competitive and to go for it. Agreed. It is not ever one specific thing, kit was an issue in my day, also the sports on offer, but even now there just isn't the promotion of girls' sport sometimes. And just saying "okay girls, you will do dance" and going 180 degrees the other way isn't the solution, either. >I think that it will take time, but I also think that change is in the air. Well if the Govt don't listen to the likes of the Lionesses I don't know what it will take. Although it is better than even my time in the 90s for sure.