Girl skateboarders: active girlhood, alternative sports, and urban space: final report June 2023

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Paechter, C. ORCID: 0000-0003-3050-5571, Keenan, M. ORCID: 0000-0003-2052-8462, Stoodley, L. ORCID: 0000-0002-0901-6661 and Lawton, C., 2023. Girl skateboarders: active girlhood, alternative sports, and urban space: final report June 2023. Nottingham: Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

Original aims and objectives.
We aimed to understand:
1. experiences of girl skateboarders as members of local skateboarding communities;
2. role of skateboarder identities in girl skateboarders’ lives, and how these relate to other, intersecting, identities;
3. incentives and barriers to skateboarding for girls;
4. how young female skateboarders use spaces in skateparks and wider urban areas, and how being involved in skateboarding affects this;
5. how we can improve girls’ physical activity levels by enhancing inclusive skateboarding provision.

Broad findings and conclusions.
Young women enjoy skateboarding and takeup is increasing. It benefits their mental health through: outdoor exercise; friendship; community belonging; and mental focus. They celebrate their developing skills and have skateboarding-focused identities. However, they encounter barriers to participation. These include: exclusion from male-dominated local skateboarding communities; feeling under scrutiny as a minority in skate spaces; assumptions that they can’t skate; hassle, including sexual harassment, from members of the public and men skateboarders; concern about ‘getting in the way’ of other skatepark users, leading them to stay on the margins of skate spaces. Even expert girl skateboarders reported finding it difficult to take up space in mixed skateboarding sessions. Girl skateboarders accept risk and injury similarly to young men. Woman/girl only sessions encourage and support participation, developing allyship. To empower women/girls and marginalised skateboarders to feel greater ownership of space, we recommend that skateparks include secluded and flat-ground areas, and offer woman/girl and coached development sessions.

Strengths and weaknesses of the research.
Strengths:
• multi-site study focusing on both park and street skateboarders;
• rounded account of experiences of girl skateboarders, novice to expert;
• theory and data about the performative nature of lifestyle sports;
• detailed, shareable, dataset;
• mapping system adaptable for use in a range of dynamic leisure spaces.
Weaknesses:
• fewer maps than anticipated due to erratic space use and weather conditions;
• less data on relationship to city than expected;
• Smaller element of participant research than hoped.