Challenge: One simple action you can take right NOW to boost awareness of girls in sports

With two daughters active in year round sports, I spend a fair A LOT of time at girls sports events.  A lot. I also attend a pretty decent sampling of boys events.

When we pull into the parking lot of any school, we can immediately tell by the amount of cars in the lot whether it’s a girls game or a boys game. If the boys are playing, good luck finding a parking space.

The discrepancy in crowd size is truly appalling in this day and age. My daughters have had family members from out of town visit and when they arrive at the gym, they usually ask if they are early.  I tell them no, there just isn’t a big crowd for girls sports. They look at me like I’m crazy.  But by the end of the game, they glance around the bleachers to see the crowd hasn’t gotten any bigger and realize I am right.

So I spend a lot of time pondering this while I sit on the bleachers watching my girls warm up. Why is this? Usually at school events you have 3 types of fans:

1. Parents and family members
2. Students
3. School administration, teachers, etc.

Now let’s compare… girls, by logical deduction, would have approximately the same number of parents, the same number of classmates and the same number of school admins as their male counterparts, correct? So why on earth are there less fans at a girls event? Who isn’t showing up? (That’s not part of the challenge, but your theories are welcome in the comments below).

In pondering all this, I thought of something simple we all can do to raise the awareness up a notch or two. And we can all do it right here – right now – from our computers.

The Challenge:

This may be the easiest action you’ve ever been challenged to take in feminist history.  Get out the stopwatch and time yourself. It’s that easy.

1. Go to Google.com (or whatever search engine you like) and search for your local middle school, high school or college web site.
2. Locate the sports section on the site and find out the dates of the next several girls home games. If the dates are listed, see #3.  If there are no games listed, skip to the alternate challenge.
3. Mark at least one date on your calendar and make plans to attend one of the games. Email a friend or two or make it a girls night out. Send your friends a link to this challenge so they can support girls athletics, too.
4. When that date arrives, don’t you dare blow it off. Those girls need your support!

Now there may be a few cases where sports are not listed on the site. Don’t panic. You can still do this next part…

The Oops-No-Sports-Are-Listed-Challenge:

1. First, check to make sure there are no boys sports listed.  If they are listing boys sports and not girls sports – that’s just not cool and you can tell them so in step #3. Usually they list none or both. Also note that some schools let students update the web site as part of a class project so be gentle when you do this next part.
2. Locate an email address or contact page for the school. Always go for the top dog first. Email the principal if possible.
3. Send the administrator a nice email like the sample below.
4. For a bigger impact, send this challenge on to others in your community so the administrator receives more than one email. ;)

Sample email (Feel free to alter it as you see fit.):

Dear School Administrator,

I was browsing your school’s web site today in search of girls sports events and I was unable to locate an athletic schedule on your web site. As a fan, I would very much appreciate it if these events could be made available to us on your web site so we can make plans to attend the games this year.

In the meantime, would you please email me a copy of the girls sports schedule.

Thank you.

Once you’ve completed the challenge (either one), report back here with your results. Tell us which challenge you completed and what you expect your results to be. Did you pass this on to a friend? The more people that know, the more impact it will have. Let’s pack the house at the next girls game!