How to get girls to participate in sport: A practical guide

spoke with Nicole Matuska, the learn manager at Women Win. Nicole shared the wealth of resources Women Win has for implementing sport programmes for girls.

Women Win’s website is an excellent place to start if your organisation is developing a girls' sport programme or looking to integrate girls into your existing sport programmes.

Getting girls to participate
“Gaining buy-in from girls can be the most difficult part of building a programme, as many girls have never considered sport as something available to them or something that they necessarily wanted to do because of the social pressure to be feminine.”

Women Win’s tips for engaging girls:

• Make participation voluntary and offer girls a variety of dates and times to participate

• Interview girls about what they want to get out of the programme and design it accordingly

• Provide a physical and emotional space where it is safe for each girl to play and interact

• Provide for basic needs to the best of your abilities, including food, water, clothing and first aid supplies

• Organise tournaments or other events related to the sport so that girls see their training or sport sessions as a step to a competition or larger event

“The most important step to understanding the obstacles girls in a specific region face is to go out in the community and ask parents and leaders their thoughts on girls playing sport.”

Women Win’s tips for overcoming barriers:

• Be flexible about what a girl can wear to participate

• Choose sport activities that girls can play in modest clothing

• Regularly expose the girls in your programme to positive, strong women role models. Invite them to be guest speakers or hold training sessions

• Try making it a policy in your programme to promote female coaches and leaders, even if it means you won’t be the team that always wins

• Approach the religious community and present to them the benefits of sport on the mind and body, while showing them that your organisation abides by all rules regarding acceptable clothing, or any other culturally or religiously relevant rules

• To view the full list of barriers and how to overcome them visit the Women Win website