Breaking gender stereotypes in sports
Print Edition
To break the gender stereotypes in sports and encourage more girls to participate in team-based competitive sports, two Shanghai students, Winston Ding and Amy Niu, jointly launched the “Sports are for Everyone” program.
Their first offline activity — a mixed-gender and mixed-age basketball charity event — took place at the Youngs Community Sports Center in the Pudong New Area last Thursday.
More than 20 teenagers aged 10 to 16 from different schools gathered to discover the fun of basketball through competitive games and group matches. It also featured discussions on the origins and evolution of basketball, the spirit of sportsmanship, and teaching of basketball skills under the guidance of basketball player Ma Yufang.
Ding, from the Shanghai High School International Division, said he came up with the idea after noticing that as he and his classmates grew older, fewer girls participated in competitive sports.
“As we grew up, we began to notice physical differences between boys and girls. As boys developed more strength, many girls felt that combat sports were not for them. In our school by fourth grade, some of the girls just hang off on the grass during PE class as it is seemingly difficult for them to gain a sense of achievement in sports, and even harder to experience the joy of winning a game, which leads them to slowly drift away from sports,” Ding added.
He also launched a questionnaire online and found 70 percent of the male responders said they would like to do a team sport that needs physical abilities while it was only 30 percent with females.
“I believe the key is to change our attitude toward sports,” said Ding. “I think girls can be as good as boys in competitive sports as long as they learn the right way to play. And there are girls that practice really well.”
He noted that one of his female classmates was good at swimming and when they encouraged her to play basketball with boys, she turned out to be so good that she was the third highest scorer in the game.
Niu, now a student of Cheltenham Ladies’ College in the United Kingdom, enjoys field hockey, tennis and cricket. Her own experiences have also highlighted this observation.
“When I was in Shanghai, I noticed that many girls, even those who did enjoy sports, often didn’t participate that much due to fear of injury, or losing the time to do something also significant such as studying,” Niu recalled. “When I went to the UK. I realized even if it’s a girls’ school, they have such a wide variety of sports and the focus on sports is also great as well.”
Both Ding and Niu said sports, especially team-based sports, have taught them leadership, perseverance and teamwork, which are all important in their life. Ding stressed the importance of taking action to prevent girls who practice diligently from being ridiculed for lacking certain physical abilities.
“Girls should not be afraid to engage in sports, nor should they shy away due to the possibility of a few scrapes,” Niu insisted. “Our ultimate goal is for girls and boys to play together, but only when their skill levels are compatible; otherwise, it wouldn’t be fair to either side.”
Their efforts paid off as some participants in the Thursday game gave a positive response.
“I am very happy to be here. I learned a lot of basketball dribbling skills today, and this event made me realize that boys and girls are equal and can play together,” said Ruan Sijie, a 10-year-old boy from the Nanmatou Primary School.
Zhao Honglang, a girl from the Dajing Junior High School affiliated to SISU, mentioned that in her school’s PE classes, there are opportunities to play basketball freely.
“I didn’t have much interest in basketball before, but through today’s activity, I found it quite interesting. If there are similar activities in the future, I will actively participate,” Zhao said. “I think these competitive sports can help me improve myself, but of course, safety needs to be considered during the process.”
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