Kelsie Prabawa-Sear: Girls need play spaces too

For about the past year or so, I have been watching as local councils and State Government announce one new pump track after another.

Some announce new playgrounds, and there is the odd skate park, but pump tracks are the clear preference now.

At a glance, this is a great outcome. My job is to advocate for kids — for them to have the time and space in our communities to play and be physically active and socially connected.

But the roll out of these types of recreational facilities was not sitting well with me and I found it hard to articulate why.

I kept asking myself and my patient colleagues, “who asked for these?”, “what are the girls getting?”

What about the boys who don’t ride or skate? Why are we catering for the sporty middle-class boys constantly? They are the ones who get the most physical activity.

It felt mean-spirited and it rubbed uncomfortably against my views of kids and gender stereotypes. Of course girls can and should ride, skate and do whatever they like.

Arisa Trew (14-year-old skateboarding Olympic champion) and Saya Sakakibara (25-year-old BMX Olympic champion) prove that very point.

We could easily point to them and, on the basis of their success, claim there is no issue. But the truth of the matter is that our recreational spaces and use of them suggest that Aria and Saya achieved what they did despite the situation, not because of it.

The issue is that girls barely use these facilities, and I assume the figures for kids with disabilities is even lower.

We have hardly any research in Australia on the use of these types of recreational spaces, but what we do have suggests that facilities like skate parks and pump tracks are used by between 95 per cent to 99 per cent boys and men, and the majority of the 5 per cent of women and girls are largely watching or supervising, rather than participating.

From an evidence point of view, we don’t know much about the boys using them, but we can assume that they have decent bikes or skateboards and have the confidence to perform their skills publicly.

Colleagues who have been polite enough to listen to my carefully worded protests have asked what we should do for the girls. My response is that we need to ask the girls what they would and wouldn’t use and why.

The girls have the answers. I just have the platform to be able to ask them.

I recently attended a physical activity and health conference in Paris which clarified this issue further for me.

I saw speaker after speaker highlight the need to get girls physically active and connected, and to design spaces for kids of all abilities and interests.

The point made was that we need multi-modal spaces. Meaning, we need to offer spaces with variation and diversity that accommodate all types of community members, including girls, multicultural communities, kids with disabilities, and kids with no money, no bikes and no skateboards.

We need to create spaces where girls and less-sporty boys feel safe from harassment and ridicule, and where everyone feels physically and culturally safe (the threat of racism is a big deterrent for many people in our communities).

There was just no clear answer as to how to achieve this. Someone asked, “What are we doing about the boys?” inferring that boys (and men) are the ones making others feel unwelcome.

The truth is that it’s not boys and men that are the problem, it’s the facilities we are providing and what that tells them.

I want boys to enjoy public spaces, to hang out with mates and be healthy and connected. I don’t want to take anything away from them. We don’t need to bring boys down to lift girls up.

What has become clear to me is that we are building spaces that we know boys will use (almost exclusively) and through their very design, we are telling boys: “This space is for you.” Then we get upset when they act like the space is exclusively for them.

We have been doing this for a long time and expecting girls to battle through and win a space, and are disappointed when girls choose not to, or are made to feel unwelcome.

One speaker shared how their soccer pitches had schedules to ensure girls had times allocated for them, and only them.

It seemed like a reasonable idea, but I’m not convinced that it is the entire answer to the problem. I also don’t think we need to over-police play or build separate spaces, but we certainly need to start building spaces that are for girls (like we have done for the boys), and be consultative, considered, and unapologetic in the designs. Like the pump tracks, everyone will be encouraged to use them.

With councils investing so much in parks and recreational spaces and a State election looming, I couldn’t think of a better time to kick off some more inclusive recreational spaces that utilise design and infrastructure that appeals to teen and tween girls of all backgrounds and abilities.

Dr Kelsie Prabawa-Sear is the CEO of Nature Play WA