Our work with women and girls has uncovered that at every life stage they face negative attitudes and discriminatory behaviours from some boys and men, whether conscious or unconscious.

From the playground to the pitch, from the workforce to the boardroom, women and girls are being excluded and it’s time for change. If we are to succeed in changing the narrative around girls in sport we need to change the narrative around boys. Because this is where it all starts.

In this research, we explore what influences the attitudes and behaviours of primary aged boys towards girls in sport. This research shows that stereotyping is still alive and kicking. Adults continue to unknowingly pass down stereotypes that can have negative consequences for both girls and boys.

“When boys are grown up they work and exercise. When girls grow up, they have to stay at home and make food.” (Primary school boy)

We discovered that ‘sportiness’ is still seen as a fundamental part of a boy’s identity from a young age. With this, boys are finding it hard to break free from the expectation that to be masculine they must be good at sport, strong and dominant.

This stereotyping not only creates a negative environment for those boys who don’t like sport, but critically it excludes girls from sport. Male dominated environments in sport, a lack of positive male role models and the invisibility of women and girls in the community and in media, further contribute to boys perceptions that girls don’t belong in sport.