Quote Originally Posted by bigfella View Post
That is not at all what I said.

Perhaps I should have used other sports as examples e.g. synchronised swimming, netball... A sport that would seem to have roughly equal participation of men/women is horse riding in its many forms (not racing) although I suspect there is some class discrimination in this case.
I understand, and my comment was a little flippant, sorry. But it's interesting that it is those stereotypes that do come out so easily. Even the sports you list - it's like they're the ones it's traditionally ok for girls to do. I'm not digging at you here, this stuff is all over the place and I probably do it myself (despite trying to be more sensitive to it).

The stuff about equal opportunities is bang on and I think, generally, probably is the case for most sports - if someone turns up to an event/club/whatever they are likely to be welcomed regardless of race, gender, etc. And that's great. But there's another level of complexity, and that's what prevents someone from accessing those opportunities... the societal constructs and expectations that steer groups of people and their behaviour. The link below is interesting reading. It's 10 years old, so things have probably improved slightly, and folk might dispute some of it, but as an overall picture of what might prevent women participating in sport I reckon it gives a good summary.

https://www.lrsport.org/uploads/barr...n-girls-17.pdf

And Travs, the stuff about women's sports "being rammed down everyone's throat"? Mate, that just seems crackers to me. We should be celebrating the fact it's getting media exposure and kids can see positive female sporting role models.