England Hockey player Tess Howard published research looking at the impact of girls having to wear boys' sports kit or girls' kit that was not inclusive to all girls. Although focused on school sport and not cricket in particular, the research would be applicable to all sports and in all locations. This abstract highlights her findings, which are useful for education in grassroots cricket, as well as providing arguments helpful for advocating female-specific kit for your W&G Teams.
Link to abstract: Tess Howard Article Abstract
Highlights from Ms Howard's paper:
"The key finding is that it should not matter why a girl or any individual chooses to wear something if it positively enables them to participate fully in physical activity and gain the experience of sport."
"When asked if participants ever saw girls stop playing sport because of sports kit or body image concerns, over three-quarters of survey respondents replied ‘Often’, ‘Many’ and ‘Sometimes’. The open responses to ‘why’ stress the influence of clothing in school sport experiences.
- ‘Almost all of the girls in my year group stopped playing sports at 15/16 because they hated their PE kit (viewing them as boring, baggy, old-fashioned)’.
- ‘My friends with larger breasts tended to stop playing sports due to the style of our tops’.
- ‘From Year 7-9, girls in my PE classes felt uncomfortable in the fit of some kit and their self-confidence decreased in kit if they perceived to not have the“ideal female body”’.
- ‘A lot of girls would be uncomfortable to play in the kit, particularly doing energetic or big movements as the skort might ride up’.
