The boys get a Trophy, The girls get Trash?

"Are We Not Good Enough?"

South Morningside Primary School's girl football team won the Edinburgh Schools Cup last year. That should be a proud moment - it's a prestigious cup. But the question the girls were asking wasn't one they should even have to ask. The team was asking, "Are we not good enough?"

The girls were presented with a small plastic trophy. That in itself is not an issue - it's a school cup, it isn't necessary that the trophy is large or fancy. The problem arises when it's compared to the trophy that the winning boys team recieved. The boys recieved a fancy, large trophy, making the girls prize pale in comparison. Mind you, both the boys and girls competitons were held by the same organization, but the boys' trophy is practically twice the size of the girls trophy.

"I was quite upset, and we were thinking were we not good enough?" - Caitlin Tierney, Age 11

Imagine being 11 years old, working hard and winning, only to find out that you're being given less than others who've put the same amount of work in, with the only difference being gender.

Speaking Up

"We went up to complain and asked why did the boys get this big massive trophy and we've just got this plastic little thing." - Caitlin Tierney

Willie French, the president of Edinsburgh Primary Schools Sports Association admitted that he was 'quite embarassed' by the obvious sexism. He recieved a letter from the girls team, saying that the trophy made them feel as if they were less than the boys, and shed less importance upon their achievement. The girls won again when he then replaced the plastic cup with a £1,600 trophy.

This moment shows that sexism isn't just in politics or workplaces. It starts all the way back in primary school. But we can also see that today's young girls know that they are worth just as much as their male counterparts, that they deserve just as much as they do. They didn't just take the obvious sexism quietly, they acted on it. They took it into their own hands to get exactly what they deserved and they won.

Being Heard

It's amazing that the girls stood up from themselves and knew exactly what they deserved. But there's something else to wonder. Should the girls have had to speak up, send a letter, wait and hope that their letter would be enough to have the organizers acknowledge and fix the issue?

As soon as the organizers saw the two trophies next to each other, they should have realized there was an issue and done something to remedy it. Did they not realise it was an issue? Did they not see the message they were sending? That's as bad as having done it on purpose. That means that in their minds, they had normalized it. Willie French stated that as soon as he'd seen the trophies next to each other, he realised it was an issue, but then why did it take a letter from the girls for him to fix it?

This is why we still need feminism. Why people still speak up. Because until they do, the issues, however small or big won't be fixed, may not even be acknowledged. These girls deserved to get an equal trophy. At the event, as soon as they realised the trophies weren't equal, the organizers should have fixed it. The girls shouldn't have had to put in that work to get the equal trophy. But they did, and it worked. So to all the girls out there - keep talking. Keep acknowleding issues. And keep trying to fix them. Because eventually, we can solve these issues.