The Quick Read
- IOC President Kirsty Coventry recently said that sport can help women and girls shape their own futures, calling for clear goals, investment in girls’ participation, women coaches and leadership pathways.
- Sport helps girls build confidence, resilience, self-esteem, teamwork and leadership. UN Women notes that girls who play sports tend to stay in school longer, delay pregnancy and get better jobs.
- UNESCO’s 2024 report says women and girls still do not have equal access to sport, and that 49% of adolescent girls drop out of sports, a rate six times higher than that of boys.
- The real question for parents, schools and workplaces is simple: are we giving women and girls enough room to play, compete, lead and belong?
- For Change in Content, sport is also a workplace conversation. The confidence built in a field often shows up later in meetings, interviews, negotiations and leadership roles.
Sports for women and girls is a future-building conversation
A girl who plays sports learns something the world often delays teaching her.
- She learns that her body belongs to her.
- That space can be occupied.
- That falling is allowed.
- That strength is not rude.
- That losing is survivable.
- That winning does not need an apology.
This is why sports for women and girls deserve a larger conversation, far beyond medals and trophies.
IOC President Kirsty Coventry, herself a former Olympic swimmer and now the first woman and first African to lead the International Olympic Committee, recently said that sport can help women and girls shape their own futures. The line stays with you because it is simple and true. Coventry’s own IOC profile says she first found herself in the pool, later became Africa’s most decorated Olympian, and went on to reach the highest office in the Olympic Movement. That journey is exceptional. The lesson is not.
Not every girl needs to become an Olympian. Every girl needs the chance to discover what her body, mind, and courage can do when no one asks her to shrink.
We need to stop asking, “Khelne se kya hi ho jaega?”
Many Indian homes still treat sports for girls as a temporary hobby.
Play for fitness; play till exams begin; play till puberty; play till the uniform feels inconvenient; play till relatives start commenting; play till safety becomes a concern; play till someone says there is no “future” in it.
Then comes the familiar line: “Khelne se kya hi ho jaega?” A lot can happen.
A girl can learn to speak up. She can learn to lose without shame. Sports can teach her to take instruction, challenge unfairness, move as part of a team, handle pressure, and stand in public without feeling watched into silence. You think that is small? It is not.
UN Women says sport teaches girls self-esteem, confidence, resilience and teamwork. It also says girls who play sports tend to stay in school longer, delay pregnancy and get better jobs. That is where parents need a fresh lens. Sport is not a distraction from a girl’s future. In many cases, it prepares her for one.
A previous Change in Content article on gendered hobbies and gatekeeping for women examined how girls are pushed towards “acceptable” interests while boys are encouraged to climb, compete, and take up space. Sport challenges that early conditioning. It permits girls to be loud, sweaty, strategic, competitive and visible.
Those permissions follow them into adulthood.
The new excuse is also wrong: “Bahut competition hai”
There is an older stereotype and a newer one. The older one says girls should not play too much.
The newer one sounds more practical: “There is too much competition. Aage kuch nahi hoga.”
It sounds reasonable. It is still too narrow.
Yes, professional sport is competitive. So is medicine; so is law; so is business; so is the media; so is every field where parents still push their daughters to excel.
We cannot reduce the purpose of sport to a career outcome.
Sport builds health. It builds discipline and friendships. Sports teach decision-making under pressure. It teaches a girl how to recover after a bad day. It teaches her that effort and results are connected, though never perfectly. That lesson is useful in every career.
A girl who has played a team sport often understands feedback differently. She knows that being corrected is not the same as being rejected. That girl knows that practice changes performance. She knows that leadership can be shared. She knows how to read the room because she has read the field.
These are workplace skills. We just do not always call them that.
The confidence gap begins early, and sport can interrupt it
Many girls are not born hesitant. They are trained into hesitation.
Sit properly. Do not run so much. Don’t shout. You must not get hurt. Do not tan. Don’t fight. Do not be too competitive. You can’t travel alone. Do not come home late.
By the time she reaches college or work, the instructions have changed shape. Now they sound like: be confident, take initiative, show leadership, ask for more, own the room.
But where was she allowed to practise all this? Sport can become that practice ground.
UNICEF has described participation in sport as a way for girls to build self-esteem, courage and self-efficacy. At the same time, it is also giving them opportunities to take up leadership positions. UNESCO’s Fit for Life initiative also frames sport as a tool for health, education, equality, socio-emotional resilience and inclusive policy.
That is exactly why schools should treat sport as formation, not filler.
A sports period should not be the first class that gets cancelled before exams. The playground should not be handed to boys by default. Girls should not have to prove they are “serious enough” before they get equipment, coaching, travel budgets or tournament exposure.
Talent needs opportunity. Confidence needs repetition.
The girls dropping out are telling us something
The problem is not that girls do not want to play. The problem is that many systems quietly push them out.
UNESCO’s 2024 report on sport and gender equality says 49% of girls drop out of sports during adolescence. That rate is 6 times higher than the dropout rate for adolescent boys. The report points to barriers such as lack of women role models, safety concerns, lack of confidence and negative body image.
That’s a crucial age. Adolescence is when many girls start receiving sharper social messages about their bodies. It is also when sport can help them build a healthier relationship with strength, movement, teamwork and ambition.
If they leave sport at that stage, the loss is larger than a missed match. They lose a community and a language of confidence. At the same time, they lose mentors. They also lose proof that their body can do more than be judged.
For parents, this is where support becomes important. A daughter may not always ask to continue. Sometimes she may withdraw because the uniform feels awkward, facilities are poor, coaching is weak, boys dominate the ground, or relatives make comments.
A supportive adult can change that story.
Stories help because girls need proof
Girls need data. They also need examples.
Kirsty Coventry’s story is powerful because she moved from the swimming pool to global sports leadership. Her IOC profile records seven Olympic medals, her role as chair of the IOC Athletes’ Commission, her work in sports administration, and her election as IOC President in 2025.
But girls also need examples closer home.
- They need to see Mary Kom not only as a boxer, but as a woman who made strength culturally visible.
- They need to see Mithali Raj as someone who carried Indian women’s cricket through the years when attention was limited.
- They need to see P. V. Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Sakshi Malik, Mirabai Chanu, Deepa Malik, Hima Das, and so many others as proof that the field is not reserved for one kind of girl.
Some are fierce, some are quiet, some are expressive, while some are reserved. Some of these come from cities, some from smaller towns. At the same time, some break through with family support, and some do it despite the absence of it.
That range is important. There is no single personality type for women in sport. That itself is a lesson for girls.
Workplaces also have a role
At first, this may look like a parent and school conversation. It is also a workplace conversation.
Companies talk about women’s leadership, confidence, visibility and resilience all the time. Sport can support all four.
- Workplaces can sponsor local girls’ teams.
- They can fund school-level sports infrastructure.
- They can create women’s sports leagues for employees.
- They can support women returning to fitness after childbirth or caregiving breaks.
- They can offer safe sports facilities, running groups, cycling clubs, self-defence programmes and leadership-through-sport workshops.
More importantly, they can stop treating sport as something only male employees bond over.
Corporate India has long used cricket, badminton, football, marathon groups and sports trips as informal networking spaces. We often exclude women from these spaces by habit, timing, safety concerns, care work, or culture. That exclusion has a cost.
A Change in Content piece on women leaders in 2026 explored how visibility, trust and confidence are becoming central to leadership. Sport can help build those muscles outside a formal training room. It creates a space where women can lead, collaborate, compete and be seen differently.
HR teams should think about this seriously. A workplace that wants women to lead should also create more spaces where women can practise leadership without waiting for a promotion.
What parents can do differently
Start early. That is the simplest and the most important message. And even if you haven’t started early, just start at your child’s current age.
Let daughters run, climb, swim, throw, kick, stretch, fall and try again. Do not wait for them to become “good” before taking sports seriously. Children become good because someone lets them continue.
Do not make sport conditional on perfection. A girl should not have to win medals to deserve to play.
Watch your language. “You will get dark”, “this is for boys”, “don’t become too muscular”, “who will marry you if you keep travelling?” These lines do damage. They teach girls that their bodies exist for approval.
Celebrate effort. Show up for matches. Meet coaches. Ask schools about girls’ participation. Buy the shoes if you can. Find community programmes if formal coaching is unaffordable. Share household work so daughters have time to play.
The signal is simple: your play is worth supporting.
What schools and administrators must fix
Schools cannot speak about holistic education while treating girls’ sport as optional.
They need trained women coaches. Safe changing rooms. Equal access to grounds. Menstrual health support. Transport for tournaments. Anti-harassment systems. Stronger school leagues. Better equipment. More role models. Clear reporting mechanisms. Serious PE periods.
Administrators need to measure girls’ participation and dropouts. They need to know which age groups are leaving, why they are leaving, and what would help them stay.
Coventry’s reported call for clear goals, investment in girls’ participation, women coaches and leadership pathways should be read as a practical checklist.
If schools and sports bodies do not measure progress, they will keep celebrating a few exceptional girls while failing many others.
Women and Girls in Sports: The Change in Content View
Sport can help women and girls shape their own futures because it teaches power before the world explains power.
- It teaches a girl to enter space.
- To trust her body.
- To work with others.
- To handle pressure.
- To recover from failure.
- To lead without waiting for permission.
Parents should not see sport as a distraction. Schools should not treat it as a timetable filler. Workplaces should not leave it to men’s networking culture. Organisations should not remember women’s sport only when a champion wins.
The old question, “Khelne se kya hi ho jaega?” needs to retire. A better question is: What might happen if more girls are actually allowed to play? The answer could change homes, classrooms, offices and futures.
Editorial Note and Sources
This article is written from the founder’s desk of Change in Content as a weekend read. It uses IOC President Kirsty Coventry’s recent comments as the editorial trigger and expands the conversation to parents, schools, workplaces and organisations. The article is intended for editorial and informational purposes only. It should not be read as professional health, education, legal or sports policy advice. The examples of athletes are used to illustrate the wider social value of sport for women and girls.
Sources used:
- International Olympic Committee: IOC President Kirsty Coventry: “Sport can help women and girls shape their own futures”
- International Olympic Committee: IOC President Mrs Kirsty Coventry profile
- UN Women Knowledge Portal: Facts and figures: Women in sport
- UNESCO: UNESCO Report: Women and girls’ access to sport still lagging far behind
- UNESCO: Fit for Life
- UNICEF: Girls are Unstoppable
