Critical analysis of the article 1 "Girls do not sweat"

 INTRODUCTION

This critical analysis aims to review the main ideas of the article “Girls Do Not Sweat: the Development of Gender Stereotypes in Physical Education in Primary School” by Carolina Cárcamo, Amparo Moreno and Cristina del Barrio. This article investigates the gender roles and attitudes towards the PE subject.The study analyses children’s views with regard to their perspective and beliefs on PE. It is based on 30 pupils from 4th and 5th grade from 2 different schools.

It holds that the attitudes towards PE are given by the society and the stereotypes we grow around this topic. Children are affected by all the agents that surround them to build up their view. Thus, their participation in this activity is guided by their expectancy beliefs and subjective value.

As a quick view of what will be commented in this critical analysis; the general tendency is that both genders have motivation to participate in PE, most of them have a positive consideration of the subject and that there is a male superiority given by “a dominant gender discourse that subordinates femininity, favours masculinity and fosters binary gender beliefs and practices” (Cárcamo, C. et al., 2020).

Its results support the urge to change gender-related issues in this subject.

This critical analysis considers the positive and the negative qualities of the research and its results. The main objective is to do a revision from the point of view of the necessity to reconsider Physical Education as a subject which has a lot of influence of gender stereotypes, having the opportunity to use it as an eradicator of all these social norms.

Firstly, there would be a review of the main aspects of physical education, then, it goes from the main sports conception to the truth of PE classes and how they are affected by different aspects. 

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

To start with, the benefits and the perception that children have of the advantages of doing this subject must be highlighted as positive aspects. Altough this is usually an underestimated subject we should pay more attention to the benefits that it gives to us. As the US Department of Health and Human Services (2018) sums up; prevention of illnesses, optimal development of the executive functions and other psychosocial variables. As responsible adults we have to take action and exploit this subject so that students can get the most of it. Surprisingly, unlike adults, the study shows a great awareness of students about what the subject brings them. Cárcamo, C. et al. (2020) explain that most of the children interviewed are motivated to perform activities in PE for their effects on physical health and also mention its importance to prevent illnesses. In addition, some 5th grade girls “(...) stress its relevance for their mental health. By means of inward-looking self-discovery and imaginative processes, female pupils involve their thoughts and emotions within physical-sporting activities” (Cárcamo, C. et al., 2020). 

This reality gives us a powerful message that we can work with psychologycal aspects through this subject. Nowadays, mental health and the urgency of taking care of it is very present, so, here we have a clear example of a way of treating it at school.

Regardless of the aforementioned benefits, PE is affected by society. Now, the most important part of the research would be analysed.

First of all, it is widely acknowledged that “sport is historically and overwhelmingly dominated by men” (Cárcamo, C. et al., 2020), this creates the first impact on PE. “Boys generally see sport as more important, more useful and they have a higher self-concept than girls, all of which results in more boys than girls participating in this domain” (Eccles and Barber 1999; Eccles 2009; Wigfield et al. 1997). Throughout the article we can see that students “consider sports to be divided into masculine and feminine” (Blández et al. 2007; Schmalz and Kerstetter 2006). For instance, they mention football as a masculine sport and handball or volleyball as femenine sports. 

Therefore, this gender distinction causes a huge distance between boys and girls.In fact, “only a couple of boys considered that the same sports could be enjoyed by both boys and girls and be practiced irrespective of the participants’ gender” (Cárcamo, C. et al., 2020).

Cárcamo, C. et al. (2020) put emphasis on the different socialisation agents such as “the family, teachers and the mass media [which] can affect boys’ and girls’ decision-making processes”. This is crucial to single out because as we are centered in changing PE, it is important to be aware of our capacity to influence kids’ behaviours; “The boys/girls limit their own sporting opportunities by having stereotypical beliefs and behavioural patterns about gender in their physical-sports activities” (Cárcamo, C. et al., 2020). The article says that are “fathers/mothers who have a greater influence as socialising agents in inspiring expectancy beliefs and sporting values”. Of course parents are the ones who influence ourselves since we are born, but it is at school where children can see our acts as teachers more reflected because they have the exemplification of the effects of these acts among all their classmates. We should start this since Preeschol because “the playtime materials and activities used during early schooling often represent traditional gender stereotypes” (Laevers and Verboven 2000), thus, the first influences that we give to them are already stereotyped.

Furthermore, there is a huge difference between what students think of themselves and what students think of themselves in comparison to others. It can be observed that the kids, individually, have a good perception of their capacities, “the boys and the girls frequently used adjectives like good, very good or excellent to describe their achievements in this discipline” (Cárcamo, C. et al., 2020). But, when making gender comparisons, stereotypes and statements of who is better in different aspects appear. A clear example could be that “not one participant, irrespective of gender, considered girls to be far better than boys in PE. (...), the participants consider that it is the boys who are more creative and that they act as instructors in front of the girls” (Cárcamo, C. et al., 2020). A contradiction is generated here because a girl can consider herself to be excellent in PE but not when boys are taken into account. This is a clear clue to see how integrated the stereotypes are.

The article describes two genders according to social norms. On the one hand, “girls are seen as being a feminine heterosexual being, fragile and weak” (Cárcamo, C. et al., 2020), they “value more cooperation and community-building than winning”(Lenskyj 1994). The activities that they perform in free time are static, usually they are “grouped together to play board games in PE, to play with dolls or just chat (...) occupying smaller and less centralised areas than the boys.” (Cárcamo, C. et al., 2020). On the other hand stereotypes assigned to boys are “related with greater strength, sturdiness and power” (Cárcamo, C. et al., 2020). In their free time they perform dynamic activities “the majority of the boys play football” and “make far more use of the public spaces” (Cárcamo, C. et al., 2020). That’s why we have to change the playgrounds we are used to, they give so much space to dynamic activities and there is no space for those who do not want to engage in them, giving them no options. 

With these constructions “the boys and girls regularly attribute the gender role to themselves and to their classmates” (Cárcamo, C. et al., 2020), this generalisation that they do, involves a perspective of the others that may be inaccurate with what others think of themselves and less freedom is given to them to express as they are.

Although we have constructed these roles based on physical attributes, an hypothesis of Hyde “holds that males and females are more similar than different in the majority of their abilities and psychological variables and that any differences are mainly the product of social constructs learned by way of differentiated socialisation processes and, to a lesser extent, biological influences”  (Hyde 2005, 2014).

As a result, the beliefs of children’s self capacities and expectations of success (expectancy beliefs) and their belief about how certain behavioural patterns will lead to success (subjective values) are affected by the above mentioned features. Their “performance levels in PE are based on the pressures they implicitly or explicitly received during the development of their gender identities'' (Eccles and Barber 1999; Eccles et al. 2000; Wigfield et al. 1997) thus, “boys consider themselves as more able in PE than girls, on the basis of their physical capabilities'' (Jaramillo and Sevilla 2006; Scharagrodsky 2001), which are not based on scientific proof. 

Limitations

This research has helped and will help to give the deserved importance to PE but it is worth mentioning that it was held in two schools where the PE teachers were not specialised in the subject but in others. It would be great to do another research where this does not happen to see the difference.

Also, even though the data collection is very accurate, we can observe that most of the examples given are of boys. The quotes from the interviews are a powerful tool but they should look for equity.

CONCLUSION

It was a necessity to do this research to go deeper into the reality of PE at school because  as Nicholson et al. (2010) explained, there is little research about the relationship of this subject with gender. This could be, as Kohl and Cook (2013) said, “due to the fact that PE has historically been considered a ‘non-essential’ subject”. “It is possible that the decrease in the importance, interest and usefulness of PE found as children grow is due to the fact that they become more able to distinguish the value that society itself gives to intellectual qualities developed through academic study versus sports activities” (Cárcamo, C. et al., 2020).

Therefore, after having analysed the research we know that “PE is classified as one of ⟮the⟯ favourite subjects by both the girls and the boys” (Cárcamo, C. et al., 2020), so, we can take advantage of it by reorganizing the subject to eliminate gender classification and as a tool to teach in a non gender-affected inclusive manner and to use it to extract the most physical and psychological benefits. 

Until now, “the dominant social rules on gender do not appear to leave space for the integration of boys/girls who do not fulfil a hegemonic gender identity”  (Cárcamo, C. et al., 2020). So, if we try to foster participation, create comfortable classes, and motivate the students to participate in sports (without considering their gender) using the new curriculum, in the future, we will achieve PE as a very rich tool.

In the curriculum there are 6 vectors (that must be present in all the projects), among them, there are Gender Perspective, Universality of the Curriculum (inclusion) and Emotional Well-being which are the key ones to end up with all the stereotypes and social norms that influence in children performance and implication in PE. With the new specific competences and knowledges we can fulfill the necessity of working emotions and physical and mental health.

REFERENCES

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- Cárcamo, Moreno, A., & del Barrio, C. (2021). Girls Do Not Sweat: the Development of Gender Stereotypes in Physical Education in Primary School. Human Arenas: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Psychology, Culture, and Meaning, 4(2), 196–217. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-020-00118-6 

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