Examining the key factors in female player dropout

The dropout of female players was an issue mentioned by numerous federations at the 14th EHF Conference for Secretaries General held in Copenhagen in March, with the broader problem encompassing differences in the age of and reasons behind players stopping with handball.

For some federations, the dropout starts with adolescents. For example, Iceland reported a problem with girls around the age of 13 stopping playing handball. The transition to being a professional player has been thought of by the federation as a core reason behind this, with — at least perceived — fewer opportunities for women to reach the professional level.

Slovenia are on the other end of the scale, reporting that the average age of dropout is soon after the age of 25. This age would seem to indicate the dropout potentially occurs due to motherhood and family reasons, despite there being a maternity leave policy in place for professional players.

This highlights a potential key theme for female players across the board. There seems to be a tendency not to play for enjoyment alone, and when no possibility to continue forward with a professional or elite career is perceived, women may choose to stop.

Looking at this topic, it is vital to keep in mind that the individual elements of a broad problem cannot apply to every single person and there are myriad different individual circumstances within the female player dropout issue, and not every female player in any country mentioned stops playing at the same age. Yet to address the broader trend, it is important to identify potential patterns that may be impacting female players as a group.

At the Secretaries General Conference, Estonia reported a divide between top-level and bottom-level teams, stating that there are not many mid-level teams. This could serve as further evidence that not many women choose to play for enjoyment — those who are close to it but cannot quite reach the top level drop out, while those in the bottom-level teams do not have lofty goals regarding an athletic career and therefore deliberately choose to play for fun.

The evidence shows numbers of female players are never a problem in countries where gender equality is emphasised as part of the handball federation’s strategy. Three of the best performing countries in women’s handball in recent years have deliberately targeted gender equality in their strategies and governance.

In France, Norway and the Netherlands, the handball federations have included gender or general equality focuses in their strategies for some time. France are the current world champions, Norway were world champions in 2021 and the Netherlands took the world title in 2019. Norway are also the current title holders in the EHF EURO, where they have the record of nine trophies won. France are the defending Olympic champions ahead of the Paris 2024 Games.

France ended the 2023/24 season with a total of 591,324 registered players, of which 238,414 were female — a rate of 40.3 per cent. Overall, the number of female players has been steadily rising since 2014, aside from during the Covid-19-impacted seasons in 2020/21 and 2021/22.

“At our federation, feminisation and the issue of equality between men and women is a clear political objective that our elected representatives have been pursuing for years,” says FFhandball vice president Béatrice Barbusse. “FFhandball began with the feminisation of governance, i.e. of female managers. This has created a positive dynamic. The question of feminisation at our General Assemblies began explicitly in 2014, and we talk about it regularly. Political will is fundamental.”

It seems clear there is a link between gender equality policies in a federation and number of female players who actively maintain participation in the sport. This is important because equality policies can relate to how interesting the offer for handball is for women and other minority groups. When people feel included or see an option that suits them, they are more likely to take part.

The success of the national team can also be relevant, as a young French girl may have every reason to hope for huge success in handball while in developing national teams a girl of the same age may not and thus may give up the sport entirely.

Perhaps proving that the success of the women’s national team can be influential in girls and young women playing handball are the cases of Norway, Denmark and Montenegro, where there are more female than male players.

Three-time women’s Olympic and EURO champions in the 1990s and 2000s and, more recently, semi-finalists at four of the five most recent major championships, Denmark reported that they had 55,903 registered female players to 51,699 male, as well as 64 identifying as other, in 2023.

But the numbers from Denmark make it clear that playing handball is not only about aiming high — participation is strong from early childhood through to the age of 59, and there are even 949 players registered in the 60+ age bracket. Clearly, people in Denmark are keenly aware of the benefits of playing handball for reasons other than pursuing the top level.

Montenegro have more female than male players in every age group but one. In the 16–18 years bracket, there are more male players and more club teams available for male players. But every other age bracket counts more female players and more female club teams.

Like Denmark, Montenegro’s case is unique due to some elements particular to handball’s role in the country — the women’s handball team are an iconic and proud figure in Montenegro, having won the country’s only Olympic medal to date. For both nations, the visibility of the national teams and their cultural impact is substantial.

Off the court, Montenegro have far higher numbers of male referees, coaches and delegates compared to female, which could indicate little relationship between such positions and the number of players in a given gender. What encourages people to play for whatever reason are their opportunities as a player.

The Netherlands and Norway have both highlighted a certain observation about women’s involvement in handball — that women are less likely to proactively take on a position or join a team but the positive response comes from invitation. Again, this is a broad generalisation, but based on a separately noticed trend in two places where women can be considered empowered.

Combining this with the evidence on women stopping to play when there is no possibility to further their career or they have not deliberately chosen to play for fun, it seems there could be something of a “what’s the point?” view on the part of some, especially when considering other responsibilities many women may hold in their lives. Therefore, it may be useful to help female players understand the benefits of any kind of participation. 

With that said, the same issues can extend to male players. In the Faroe Islands, there are 3,000 registered handball players from the age of nine to the senior level, 50 per cent of which are female. The Faroe Islands have noticed a dropout around the age of 15 for both male and female players.

“To fight the dropout, we try to educate coaches and encourage the clubs to embrace both the elite players who have high ambitions, but also the players who play for fun, who show up for the exercise and communal side of the sport. For us the elite player is connected with the player who plays for fun. They might be friends and if the elite player does not have his best friend at training anymore, he might also quit,” says Faroese Handball Federation secretary general Ari Rouch.

“This way we try to have a holistic approach to this issue, encouraging coaches and clubs to embrace both types together, creating a strong community and positive environment, but also the possibility to develop elite players.”

The fact that the Faroe Islands have observed the same pattern in male and female players shows how important it is that athletes in general have an option that suits them, whether they play for fun or to be serious about the sport or something in between. Ensuring everyone has an option to enjoy handball in the way that suits them is the core of the Netherlands’ strategy, which was made based on the claim “everyone experiences handball.”

Children’s handball key to gender equality

For Slovenia, the work to combat player dropout is starting with children. In 2023, the Slovenian Handball Federation created the 2023–2030 action strategy, which includes increasing the number of kids playing handball as one of the most important pillars.

To that end, 16 mini handball tournaments were organised by the federation together with clubs around Slovenia in the 2023/24 season. In the coming season, the Slovenian Federation will work with clubs to present handball in the early grades of primary schools, aiming to recruit more children to play regularly. The new school year will also see the start of a handball pilot project in kindergartens, beginning with a test in three kindergartens in Ljubljana.

The importance of developing children’s programmes towards encouraging lifelong participation was proven by a study in France: “For all ages and for all sports, a recent study in France showed that proportionally, girls are hardly more likely than boys to give up their federated practice in adolescence. The gap is built up from childhood, when boys’ comparatively stronger commitment is linked to their childhood socialisation centred on sporting activities,” says FFhandball vice president Barbusse.

Naturally, these are not the only federations with a focus on kids’ participation. For several other “big” handball countries, such as Denmark and Croatia, the focus on children is paramount.

Croatia currently have a project on handball in kindergartens, which falls under the EHF Master Plan. This is strongly related to combatting gender stereotypes, which the Croatian Federation have confirmed through research on children’s attitudes in this context.

“There are still various gender stereotypes in Croatia that sports are not for girls and that they should devote themselves to school because they cannot make a money/living from sports. Families are still traditional and more supportive of their sons playing sports,” says Lidija Bojić-Ćaćic of the Croatian Federation, who report a total of 5,099 female players to 8,490 male ahead of the 2024/25 season.

Croatia see a trend of girls stopping playing handball around the age of 14 or 15, when they enter high school. Training times often do not align with school, and thus girls often stop playing — which comes back to the idea that some perceive there is no benefit to playing aside from a professional future in the sport.

When considering children’s handball, it is obvious the focus is not on winning big titles. They key to kids’ involvement is enjoyment, which naturally encompasses the social element of the sport. Overall, the solution to keeping girls and women playing handball may come down to ensuring they see those critical benefits of fun and socialising from the start.

Photos © Kolektiff Images, Marius Ionescu, Stefan Ivanovic