The Gender Play Gap

Team sports have the power to transform your health, wealth and happiness. So why are women still not playing? We went to the netball court to find out

- Nikki Osman

The juice from an orange dribbling down my chin. A bib bearing the musty smell of a life spent inside the equipment cupboard. The sharp, stinging pain of a ball connecting with my cheek. These are my time tangled memories of the netball court where I spent most of my hours between the ages of 11 and 16. Tying them all together in a bow is a feeling that can be articulated with a single word: team. Sport infiltrated my Tuesday evenings and my Saturday mornings; I hung my medals on the door of my wardrobe; I was (whisper it) a joiner. “Sporty” was a label I wore with pride. So, why, 15 years later, is it nothing more than a distant memory? In the lifetime since I last

slipped a bib over my head, I’ve done barre, I’ve boxed and I’ve burpeed. l’ve made time for Sunday morning sun salutations and I’ve pounded pavements until my legs were strong enough to carry me 42 kilometres. And yet, I’ve never returned to the netball court – nor any other kind of pitch, ground or track. And I’m not the exception; I’m the rule. While men grow out of PE class and into five-a-side games, local leagues and just-for-the-hell-of it kick-abouts, post-education, women shelve their team spirit and leave it to gather dust.

Where have all the women gone?

The absence of women in team sport is a worldwide phenomenon. In the US, a study commissioned by Always found that 51 percent of girls quit sport by the age of 17. UK stats show that twice as many men play sport as women. And here in SA, the Department of Sport and Recreation notes that participation in sport, when it comes to women, has been “particularly poor and major sports set targets that were not achieved, with little to no opportunities afforded to girls at school and club level.”