During high school football games, girls have traditionally been consigned to cheerleading squads. Today, though, SCHS’s cheerleading team boasts just one male student. Its football team, by contrast, is entirely male.

Single-gender sports teams are no longer a matter of separate spheres for boys and girls; with more options available to boys, they have become a way of enforcing sexism at school.

This is especially evident in high school football, which has been entirely male-dominated for its history. In 2011, according to ESPN, a mere 1,561 girls across the entire U.S. participated in high school football, the majority of them in programs like SCHS’s “Powderpuff,” which are not available at most high schools.

Only a few girls across the country have made their high school’s football team, and no girl has played on SCHS’s team to date. Proponents of single-gender sports teams, particularly where football is concerned, argue that football is not only a contact sport, but “upper-body oriented,” placing girls at a disadvantage.

However, women are not barred from playing rugby, a contact sport similar to football in which they have made significant advances in the last few decades. Women have been successful in tennis leagues, playing both against other women and against their male counterparts, and demonstrating their ability to compete in sports requiring upper body strength.

Many in the sports world argue in favor of separate leagues for men and women, with equal opportunities. This is blatantly not the case in professional sports, however.  There is no female equivalent of the NFL, nor is there a national women’s ice hockey league; the last major one disbanded in 2007.

When all-female teams or leagues emerge in sports, they are often met with little respect or outright hostility. FIFA, which organizes the world’s premier soccer league, hosts a Women’s World Cup, but its viewing figures are less than two-thirds those of the men’s world cup.

This lack of respect begins in schools and universities, when women are not given the same opportunities as men to refine their athletic skills, or are not supported by their communities when they choose to do so. To counteract this problem, high schools must create equal opportunities for male and female athletes. At SCHS, that means encouraging both girls and boys to try out for all sports, including football.