Too big a football pitch which leaves no room for other games, this is what set fire to the powder at the Chevreul primary school in Dijon (Côte-d’Or). If the anecdote can make you smile, it is in fact revealing of another problem: gender inequalities. Indeed, on this ground, there are only boys.
Boys don’t want to play with girls
The problem is not really football, it is above all thatthere is only a very selective list of people who can play… and girls are not part of it as Inès, 9 years old, says: “They say it’s not for girls, that we don’t know how to play, but if we don’t know how to play, it’s because they won’t let us”.
And then, there is also the opposite situation: girls who do not want to let boys play with them to yet “mixed” games. Maxime is 9 years old, and he doesn’t play football, but sometimes he is refused in groups of girls: “One day I wanted to play with girls at the touch-and-touch wolf and they didn’t want to, because I was a boy”.
We installed games so now everyone plays together and it’s better
Propose new activities so that everyone finds their place
To resolve this situation, new games are available in the playground: basketballs, Frisbees, but also board games. Games considered “mixed” by children and which allow everyone to find their account according to Mathéo, 10 years old: “We have a basketball for example and everyone plays with it, board games that everyone has the right to play and I think it’s much better”.
–
