Why is the participation in sport of girls from minority backgrounds below the average, in Norway? Can sport contribute to integration? Are participating in sport and being a girl irreconcilable? In her doctoral thesis in sports sociology, Sport, gender, body and culture – girls from minority backgrounds’ encounters with Norwegian sport, Åse Strandbu poses some of these questions.
Neither forbidding nor encouraging
Statistics from the “Young in Norway survey” show that 42 per cent of ethnic Norwegian adolescents participate in organised sport, while only 25 per cent of adolescents with minority group backgrounds take part. Participating in organised sport is more normal for those from higher social backgrounds. Many young people from minority backgrounds have parents with only a basic level of education and working class professions, and if one compares young people from the same social strata then ethnic background appears not to be so important.
Social background, however, cannot explain the differences in the data for the participation of girls. This is the basis for Strandbu’s fieldwork. She has interviewed girls from ethnically “mixed” basketball teams from the east side of Oslo and girls who take part in an aerobics group for Muslim women. She has talked to them about sport, gender and body.
– Why are girls from minority backgrounds not active to the same degree in sports as ethnic Norwegian girls?
– There are many reasons, but they don’t mention direct discrimination very often. And they are conscientious in saying they have a good relationship with their parents, the sociologist says. And she explains that many of her informants are fed up of having their parents always portrayed as being strict. Nevertheless, in Strandbu’s opinion the parents do exercise a certain amount of influence, but not by directly forbidding the girls from taking part in sport.
– The parents do not believe that taking part in organised sport is important. One of my informants says her parents were afraid that it would affect her school work if she played basketball, says Strandbu, but adds that this is also about differing ideals of femininity: – Like all parents they want to raise their children in accord with their principles of suitable conduct, and in this case feminine conduct. Sweating and being physically active stand in contrast to a retiring ideal of femininity, says the researcher.
A Norwegian Ideal
In the course of her study she has become more aware of how Norwegian sports culture works. Strandbu claims that it is normal to start from the culture of immigrant communities when explaining why girls from minority backgrounds participate in organised sport less than the average. However, it can be just as interesting to begin from the peculiarities of Norwegian sports culture: – In Norway taking part in sport is seen as an important part of a child’s development, whereas parents from minority backgrounds are more concerned with schoolwork and discipline, Strandbu says, and points out that we view the non-participation of girls from minority backgrounds as a problem in itself.
– The Norwegian sports culture is very broad, locally rooted and characterised by the participation of both boys and girls. But it has not always been this way. Sport has always been a battleground for gender politics. In the 1970s, for example, many were sceptical to having a female team in the Football Association, yet football is today one of the most popular sports among teenage girls, Strandbu points out.
– The ethnic Norwegian girls on the basketball team say that it is absolutely no problem to combine femininity and sport, she says, and adds that this is especially true for basketball. One of her informants said that she felt more boyish when she played football, because there was more physical contact, and that basketball is not physically confrontational to the same degree. According to the researcher, the big difference between the sexes is that girls connect their identity with the sport they play less than boys. The girls are equally active within their sport, but they don’t become “basketball girls”, even though they play basketball.
– The girls do not become sports nerds as easily as do the boys, Strandbu explains.
In recent years there has been an enormous development in sport related gender identity, but there are different interpretations of this development: - With greater general equality between boys and girls there are people who suggest that sport is becoming an exclusive masculine domain for boys – an arena in which they are allowed to be tough boys. The title of one book puts it thus: The stronger women get the more men love football. I have not interviewed boys in this study, but the impression from interviews with ethnic Norwegian girls is that sport is no longer connected with masculinity, the researcher says.
The Hijab and Aerobics
Strandbu has interviewed two diverse groups of women from minority backgrounds who take part in sport – aerobics girls and basketball girls, but in her opinion the differences she finds between the two are connected to each activity’s peculiarities, and to the practice of religion. Basketball is a team sport and the team depends on one’s effort. This makes the threshold for participation quite high. There is no fun taking part if you are the one who ruins the game. In aerobics you can come and go as you like – and you do not need to be good at it.
Another difference is that girls who do aerobics are more focused on training in order to stay slim. The girls in the basketball team are satisfied with their bodies and react negatively to girls who are too focused on their appearance, says Strandbu, as in her opinion there is a difference between the girls who take part in team sports and those who do aerobics. A third difference is that while the basketball girls participate in various Norwegian sports organisations, the aerobics scheme was especially for Muslim women. In this she sees a paradox: - Aerobics is a western form of exercise of which one of the main aims is to approach a slim body ideal, and there are indications that the western ideal of being slim has influenced the Muslim women. Even though some of them have mothers who were fattened up before their wedding, she says. She explains that many of the women taking part in the aerobics were strict practising Muslims, who for religious reasons would not train within the view of men, but this does not apply to them all.
One of the women was deeply opposed to the gender segregated culture she was raised in, but was not able to free herself from the modesty that had been instilled in her, says Strandbu, and emphasizes that Islam itself does not prevent women exercising. According to the researcher it is a question of interpretation, something that Kristin Walseth among others has shown in her research on the life histories of Muslim girls, and it is quite possible to negotiate greater freedom.
– One of the basketball girls has re-educated her parents into believing that it is okay that she plays the sport. She enjoyed sports and has changed her parents’ opinion about it, she says. In Strandbu’s opinion positive changes are taking place in that the girls are taking part more in organised sport, but she adds that this should not take place as part of an idealisation of “western” culture:
– The girls have many restrictions. A teenage fashion that demands that they display their body can be just as restrictive as the demand to cover it up. There are many reasons for wearing a religious head scarf, and one of those is that it gives them more freedom because it allows them to avoid sexualised stares, she says.
– Do you believe there is too little or two much emphasis on cultural explanations?
– That depends on which field you are talking about. When talking about girls’ exercise and physical activity, cultural explanations are important. There seems to be considerable cultural stability regarding what physical activities are suitable for women. In other areas there are dramatic changes from generation to generation. Many of these girls have mothers who are illiterate housewives, while they themselves have higher education degrees. In the context of integration this is something that is much more important than participating in team sports, Strandbu says.
Sport as a political arena
The government and sports associations view participation in sport as an important means for integration. Strandbu says that it can work: – There are many happy endings. Viggo Vestel in his doctoral thesis has described how newly arrived Somalian boys who could not speak Norwegian experienced great joy by playing football with their classmates, she says.
Strandbu has some reservations: – When the rhetoric about sport and cultural neutrality is stretched too far – then it is a mistake. It is not true that sport is a universal language that everyone automatically can understand and take part in, says Strandbu. The aerobics group for Muslim women is one example of a culturally specific sports initiative, in that consideration has been made of the women’s need to exercise away from the gaze of men.
– Is it not a problem that one accommodates gender segregation with such a group?
– No, I don’t believe so. There are many reasons for women wanting to exercise only with other women. There is no reason to convert people to being like us before they are allowed to exercise, says Strandbu. She thinks it strange that many people become principled regarding Muslim women , while they are not principled about themselves. – We must remember that most of us want to do what the people we identify with are doing. This is valid for how we clothe ourselves too, she rounds off with.
Translated by Matthew Whiting KILDEN