Mixed sports teams for children or the formula “boys on one side and girls on the other?” This debate is part of the reflections of the Quebec Minister of Sports, Recreation and the Outdoors, Isabelle Charest, who had already begun to look for ways to promote the progress of girls in sports activities, she said after publication of an article by To have to Thursday reporting on a mother’s efforts to get her little girls to play ball in a league with their boy friends.
“The big questioning comes from an observation: there are fewer girls in sport,” said the minister in a telephone interview on Thursday.
In adolescence, they “drop out” more than boys from sports practice: this is what the statistics show, she continued.
She wants that to change.
This is why Quebec funded the Research Chair “The Laboratory for the Advancement of Women in Sports in Quebec”, which was created last April. The idea is to identify the best ways to better meet the needs of girls so that they are more active, that they adhere more to sport, and that they flourish.
The chair has carte blanche for its research projects and its work, but precisely one of the examples given is precisely this: for the development of a young sportswoman, is it better for there to be a separation of the sexes, the diversity or free choice? reported M.me Charest.
But these choices come with challenges, she warns.
The structure of women’s sport is more fragile, since there are fewer participants, she explained. Thus, if a large number of girls choose leagues with boys, the feminine structure could crumble, with the consequence of a lesser offer of services for those who prefer this formula.
“What’s the best way to do it?” That until a certain age there is no separation? This is a question that many leagues, many administrators, and many parents ask themselves. »
Karine Bellemare filed a complaint with the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse for discrimination, since a soccer league refused to put her 4- and 5-year-old girls and two of their children on the same team. boy friends. The Commission took the case to court and then to the Court of Appeal.
Mme Bellemare explained that parents try to raise their children indiscriminately on the basis of their gender, but when sports teams separate boys from girls at such young ages, it undermines their efforts.
Although the Minister rightly indicates that the government is “trying to be inclusive and to deconstruct stereotypes”, thus echoing the words of Ms.me Bellemare, she says she wants to find the optimal option for girls: according to her, we must take into account the fact that if some “drop out” of sport, it may be “because they are not well in this environment -the. So we wonder: is the dropout prevented by just playing between girls? »
The Research Laboratory for the Advancement of Women in Sports in Quebec, housed within Laval University in Quebec, continues its work, and one of those already started concerns precisely gender diversity in sport.