Sexism has been an issue since the beginning of sports. The late 1800s was the first time women were able to participate in competitive sports. In the 1940s, women had their first professional sports league for baseball. In 1972, Title IX was passed, which protected women from discrimination in sports that received federal financial assistance. Although women fought and succeeded for equal rights in sports, sexism is still present in sports today. Some may argue that sexism in sports has created a mental health crisis in teenage girls. 1.3 million girls are quitting their sports because of increases in anxiety, self-harm, and eating disorders, according to an article from womeninsport.org.
While St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes School has tried to be equitable in terms of their treatment between boys and girls sports, poll results show that many members of the Saints community still feel as though this issue is unresolved.
In a survey to the upper school students, 56.8% of the 35 girls’ responses said they had experienced sexism in their sport. Girls complained that their sport often lacked equipment or support. One anonymous girl said, “ It [sexism and preferential treatment] made me and some of my teammates less confident in ourselves.” The sport that was reported to have the highest percentage of sexism or unfair treatment was soccer, with 31.8% of student responses saying they had experienced inequality in it.
Unequal support in other sports also came up. A student voiced the perspective that, “football is prioritized over field hockey – the football arch would only be used for football games — also no one really comes to our games and for SHC far less people show out than for Friday Night Lights.”
Outside of school sports, students have reported experiencing sexism for years in their club sports. One student said, “I used to play a lot of coed sports. I had problems with never being passed to and feeling too scared to try my best. When no one would pass to me, it ruined a lot of my confidence.”
“I just feel like people just kind of forget it’s a sport,” said varsity softball player Kaia Corens ‘27. “A lot of the time, the baseball team gets priority over batting cages… sometimes the team will ask for extra balls and we just kind of don’t get it.” After a moment she added “It’s like we’re speaking into a void.”
Senior Anna Strauss ‘25, a varsity lacrosse player, emphasized a similar point, “I feel like the boys typically…have the better gear, and their stuff always comes earlier.” She continued,“The boys shoot a lot harder on the goals because of the way their stick is built…they shoot really aggressively on our game goals, and often break them… it just seems like they have more of a priority to get what they want versus what we want…It should be equal, but it just doesn’t always feel equal.”
When asked about the difference between girls and boys basketball, varsity basketball player Samson Grinspun ‘25 said, “I think they probably practice at the middle school a lot more than we do… they don’t get any posts on Saints Hype Squad, and we do.” Strauss reiterated this point, “Part of it [Sexism]…is definitely like the way that the Hype Squad is run.” She continued, “It promotes more of the boys sports. And I think that’s on our part… because whatever the younger kids are going to see to go to, then they’ll go to that.”
This is a comment that has come up multiple times when asking Saints how sexism plays a role at St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes. Although not showing up to certain sports events may not seem like that big of a difference, it is. Fifty-eight percent of girls answered that this affects their and their teammates’ motivation to perform.
Despite the issues, students also cited improvements,“They [girls basketball team] get[s] the earlier practice a lot,” said Grinspun. “I feel like things have gotten better,” said Strauss, “Hopefully they [continue to] get better in the future.”
To get an administrative perspective, we spoke with Saints Athletic Director Coach Koroma and Assistant Athletic Director Coach Hendi. Koroma said she was aware of how sexism can divide sports and helped us understand what the school does to try and prevent this division.
When asked about how our sports have become more balanced across boys and girls teams, Koroma explained there weren’t always girls teams for every sport, but that girls were always able to play with the boys. Saying, “I first came there were girls who could golf on the boys team…so they would have to golf from the boys tees.” Recently there was a proposal discussing “whether or not girls should be able to golf from the front tees as opposed to the back.” Our athletic board continues to make changes such as this to make girls and boys sports as equal as they can.
However, students must make these changes as well. Koroma talked about the difference in crowd sizes for boys and girls games. “We’re still fighting years of tradition and cultural expectation,” she says, “when it comes to our students’ choice of games to attend. She adds how she would “love” for the enthusiasm around boys games to carry over for events like Spring Fling. But she points out how “it’s not just boys that are coming to watch the boys” but also “girls that are coming to watch the boys.”
The school has worked to change expectations for games, making it more accessible to come to “under supported” games. Koroma mentioned that the ticket prices for the Sleepy Thompson Basketball Tournament are $10 but for girl’s tournaments the price is usually $5. The middle school and JV girls also are invited to go for free.
While sexism in sports seems unimportant or not a real issue to some, Coach Hendi shared how he “never lived it until [he] became a guy coaching girls.” He explained how most of the time he sees “minor discrepancies” and male sports being prioritized more than female sports, often with “‘no explanation as to why besides ‘oh, it’s the boys’.” This can be seen during Sleepy Thompson when the gym is “sold out…then our girls tournament comes and there’s, like, no students.”
Similar to most people at SSSAS, Hendi notices the imbalance in our school spirit between the girls and boys teams. When he was asked about his thoughts on the sports available for girls at SSSAS, he added “you can have the same amount of girls sports, but it’s more of how much energy…you put into it”
This “energy” is not only measured on the field or by the crowd, but also behind the scenes. Hendi told us how “we’re fighting to try to have another girls locker room” because while “all varsity boys sports here have group locker rooms..not all varsity girls sports have [them].” He even told us, “in the fall, [his] girls team for soccer has to share with volleyball.” While some boys teams do have to share, it’s usually the sports with less equipment. Even then, the boys have four locker rooms and the girls have two. Many people can agree with Hendi when he finishes with, “I think that there’s still so much more work to do.”
