Utkarsh NarangFounder, IgnitedNeurons · Your best doers become your worst managers as you scale. I turn them into leaders so your best people don’t leave.

The Subtle Messages We Send Our Kids

23 Jul 2025 · 1 min

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A woman recalls being excluded from a grade-5 AFL clinic because she was a girl, while boys got the clinic and girls got a netball rules lesson instead. That moment shaped her lifelong push for gender equality in sport, even as she's wrestled with how male athletes behave and the lack of support for women in the field.

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So to give you, you know, one of my earliest recollections, when I was at primary school in grade 5, we had some, I think they were Collingwood AFL players, were to come to the school to conduct a footy clinic. And I was so excited thinking I was gonna get the opportunity to, you know, participate. And our school principal determined that the grade 5 and 6 boys could go out into the playground and participate in the football clinic. And the grade 5 and 6 girls were to sit inside the classroom and learn the rules of netball. And I think that was my first sort of real exposure that my gender was going to make a difference and not in a good way. And so I think, you know, that probably lighted a bit of a fire in me around gender equality and access to whatever sporting interests women and girls are interested in, that equality of access and participation. So I think then as I've grown, you know, sometimes with the behavior of some of the sort of male athletes and the lack of exposure and support for women athletes, I think, yeah, it's been a bit of a love-hate relationship at times. But I've always tried to do what I can to really promote the fact that Sport is a wonderful thing for people to be involved in, whether it's men, women, gender-diverse people.