A group of indignant primary schoolgirls have written to the Football Association complaining that a document aimed at increasing female participation in football treats them like “brainless baby Barbies”.
The pupils from Lumley junior school near Chester-le-Street, County Durham, took exception to the FA paper, titled Considerations for Increasing Participation in Women and Girls Football, which they studied during a school writing project looking at gender equality in football.
The pupils were so shocked by some of the content they thought initially it was fake. They objected to the suggestion that girls should be offered stamps and prizes as an incentive to keep them attending practice sessions, and they were irritated by advice that girls should be allowed to wear casual clothing and use colourful bibs, which should be “clean and smell nice”.
“Allow girls the time to check their phones within a session or incorporate a Twitter break so participants can tweet about the session,” the document suggests. It also proposes using a smaller ball because beginners might be put off by being hit by a heavy ball. And it says music should be allowed and girls should practise inside in the winter.
The pupils also objected to the document, drawn up in 2014, suggesting that the word “sport” and its traditional image “can trigger negative associations for many women”.
One pupil, 10-year-old Nancy, wrote to FA chief executive Martin Glenn: “I am absolutely astonished that you have the nerve to write all of that absolute rubbish about women and girls playing football.
“I am a girl myself, I like playing football and your Considerations for Increasing Participation in Women and Girls Football is totally wrong,” she said, adding: “We will not go to your training sessions just because you give us stamps! Your tone of voice sounds as though you think we are brainless baby Barbies!”
Fellow year-six pupil Grace wrote: “We are not fussy about the smell of our bibs – would you be? And we are not afraid to get hit by a ball so why would we need light ones; in case we break a nail?”
Another letter read: “Why is everything [except one thing] on there pink? Are you saying that the only colour women and girls can like is pink? Because it seems to me like that’s what you are trying to get across.
“How about heavy balls?” the letter continued. “We need to use proper footballs otherwise it is not proper football.” And on the suggestion that sweat towels should be made available for girls, it added: “If boys don’t need sweat towels we don’t need sweat towels. Yours angrily, Isabella (year 6).”
“I think it was unbelievable,” said 10-year-old Amy, who plays in midfield for the school and her local club in Washington. “We were just all really shocked. I got quite angry about it.”
Carol Hughes, the deputy headteacher, said both girls and boys were shocked by the implied sexism of the document. She said: “When I produced the document the children thought it was fake. They didn’t believe anybody would still have those views. They were really, really shocked.”
Lumley junior school has a girls’ football team and both girls and boys play football at lunchtime. The school sent off a selection of the pupils’ letters to Wembley at the end of November but has not had a reply from the FA. “I am incredibly proud of the [girls],” said Hughes. “I just hope they get a response soon.”
The FA said the document had been drawn up in collaboration with Women in Sport and the Us Girls! project, which aims to get disadvantaged young women into sport, and was based on research asking girls (aged 12 and over) and young women about possible barriers to sport and what might put them off playing football.
An FA spokesperson said: “The FA is committed to doubling female football participation by 2020 and to growing the women’s game at all levels, from elite to grassroots.
“The document is aimed at engaging young women who don’t currently play football. It was created following research into women and girls playing football, with feedback from both participants and non-participants, and encourages a creative approach to increasing participation numbers.
“We’re very pleased to see how many girls at the school play football and the passion for the game that they clearly have.”