Girls dropping out of sports at ‘alarming rates’ due to gendered uniforms: Study

Abraham Smith

A new study has found that gender-specific school sports uniforms play a large role in teenage girls’ high dropout rates from school sports.

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The study, published in Sport, Education and Society, drew on more than 400 survey responses and eight interviews with women ages 18 to 24. The study was led by British field hockey star Tess Howard, who suggests focusing on reforming uniform policy by expanding participation has “huge potential to transform the physical and psychological experiences of women in school sports.”

Howard found that more than 70 percent of survey participants had dropped out of the sport because of concerns about clothing and related body image.

“The results I’ve discovered in terms of the number of girls that are discouraged from exercising are really alarming. It’s the most underestimated reason for the low number of female athletes,” Howard, 24, told The Guardian. Howard studied human geography at Durham University and her dissertation led to new regulations for inclusive kits being introduced at the start of England Hockey’s domestic league season last year.

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She is now studying for a Masters at the London School of Economics while playing as a forward for East Grinstead Hockey Club. The aspiring Olympian secured Britain’s first-ever Commonwealth Games gold medal with a crucial goal against Australia last summer.

“It’s all about the choice; Choice is rigorously inclusive. No one should be discouraged from participating in any sport simply because of what the uniform requires of them. We need to put the purpose of the sport first and allow individuals to be active with all the clear benefits,” Howard added.

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While her initial focus is field hockey, Howard wants to change gendered uniforms across all sports.

She says the legacy of gendered and sexualized uniforms dates back to the Victorian era, “when women and girls in sport had to find ways to assert their femininity in order to be accepted in a masculine world – be it through tennis, cricket and hockey in long skirts or by sexualizing beach volleyball and leotards.”

Howard added that gender-specific uniforms “has shaped the view of women’s sports from a young age” and put the focus on girls’ bodies rather than their abilities.

As part of her efforts, she founds Inclusive Sportswear CIC, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing more inclusive sports and movement apparel and consistent policies for schools, clubs, sports organizations and brands.

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“I keep asking myself: if not now, then when? If not us, who? That’s what drives me,” Howard told Taylor & Francis, a global publisher of scholarly books, journals and online resources. “The momentum has built; Now we need to connect sportswear with inclusion and participation in sports. But it’s so much more than that: this is connecting to a larger global movement for individual choices about how we dress and treat our bodies.”

The company will debut next month.

Ahead of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, both the German women’s gymnastics team and the Norwegian women’s beach handball team made headlines for opposing what they described as the sexualization of their respective sports due to uniform standards.

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The gymnastics team wore body suits instead of the standard jersey, while the handball team opted for shorts instead of the required bikini bottoms.

Taking to Instagram, the handball team noted that they wore the shorts as a statement and were “overwhelmed by the attention and support from around the world”.

“Thank you to all the people who support us and help spread the message! We sincerely hope that this will lead to a change in this nonsensical rule!” They said.
In 2021, Norway’s beach handball players were each fined 150 euros because they wore shorts instead of the prescribed bikini bottoms. That same year, the International Handball Federation announced that bikinis would no longer be required for women beach handball players, instead opting for “short, tight pants with a tight fit” and a “body-hugging tank top” in competitions.

Howard hopes her research will help drive similar changes for field hockey.

“My dream is to go to the Olympics, but my dream is also to have an Olympics where you can wear shorts or skorts,” she said.

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