In the summer of 2022, a group of women made history winning the Euros inspiring a generation of young girls to play football. It was a particularly emotional experience for not only the players and fans but for parents seeing their daughters faces light up imaging themselves achieving something similar. The Lionesses achieved something their male counterparts have lacked to do for over 50 years, but the real achievement was shifting the narrative around women’s football gaining a new level of respect.
At Jupiter Play, this incredible achievement touched the whole team but none more so than Creative Lead Rosie Mayer who grew up as a huge football fan but due to various factors lost the love for the sport. Rosie has spent the last year listening and learning about the issues young girls face spending time and being active in our public spaces. The Euros win brought on a significant reflection for Rosie, thinking about the reasons and factors that led to a disillusion with football and saw a correlation with the feedback coming from the workshops around young girls feeling safe in parks and being active in public spaces.
Studies have shown that teenage girls are significantly less active than teenage boys, with only 10% of girls aged 13-16 meeting the recommended daily guidelines of 60 minutes of physical activity per day (Sport England, 2018).
In addition to this, a new study into how teenage girls use parks and green spaces for recreation has found twice as many girls as boys feel unsafe exercising in their local park (49% compared to 26%) (Yorkshire Sport 2022).
Landscape Architect, Jennifer Tindsley also sees the significance of the Lionesses Euro’s win as a mother of a young girl who hasn’t yet found a love for sport but saw the match and asked for a football. Jennifer has joined Rosie to discuss the processes and interventions Jupiter have adopted to design more welcoming spaces for young girls.
To contact Jupiter Play: info@jupiterplay.co.uk
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