Rally to demand gender equality in school sports in Basingstoke

Children from schools in Basingstoke were invited to the event held at Winklebury Football Complex on Monday (June 27), where they took part in activities to promote gender equality in sports.

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The campaign was launched by Sherfield School pupil Katie Allen, who joined forces with the Basingstoke Women’s Equality Party (WEP) to launch a petition calling on the government to make equal sporting opportunities for all genders a legal requirement.

More than 10,000 people signed the petition which was backed by Manchester United and England footballers Abbie McManus, Ella Toone, and Kirsty Smith.

The campaign celebrated a success earlier this year when the House of Lords recommended that guidance should be issued to schools.

Katie, now 17-years-old, bravely launched the campaign after she was bulled for wanting to play football at school.

Katie Allen and Stacy Hart, pictured middle.

She said: “I launched the campaign during lockdown when I was sat in the garden with my friend, and we were talking about sports.

“I just got annoyed because in my school girls could only play rounders and netball and I thought I am going to do something about this, so I started the petition.”

Katie said she always wanted to play football but “didn’t feel comfortable enough in her own skin”.

She added: “Students can feel awkward in PE lessons as the sport they want to play is only played by the other gender. This makes people feel like it's not okay that they play that sport, which is not right.”

WE Basingstoke had written to all local schools inviting them to the rally to discuss the issue and to urge them to make any necessary changes to their curriculum.

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Stacy Hart, WE Basingstoke’s branch leader, said: “We have been running our equality in schools’ campaign for a couple of years ever since we heard about a school girl who was not allowed to play football at school because she was a girl.

“Putting kids in those kinds of boxes depending on their gender is like saying this one can do football but this one is not allowed to dance, and it is incredibly damaging. It’s a drop in the ocean of masses and masses of huge amounts of pressure put on kids from a young age telling them what their aspirations can and can’t be.”

The aim of the rally was to encourage Basingstoke schools to move forward on this ahead of the coming guidance.

Stacy added: “WE would love to be able to say that Basingstoke schools are UK leaders in school sports equality, because equality really is better for everyone.”

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