“Daddy, why is it only boys who play football and why are there no girls?” This was the innocent yet perceptive question posed by my daughter the other day as she sat with her daddy and watched as he caught up with Match of the Day. I’ll be honest and say it made me feel a little sad inside, that at 3 years old, she is already picking up on the gender bias in football among other stereotypes that continue to exist in society, despite efforts to eradicate them. She’s already been telling us, since starting pre-school, that pink is only for girls and boys don’t wear dresses. Admittedly though, as parents, her dad and I are a little to blame for her current perception of football as a boys’ game. We haven’t signed her up for any toddler footie classes even though she has displayed a clear interest in kicking a ball around. And up to this point in her life, she has only seen her cousin play the game with the all boys team he trains with.

Putting parental blame aside though, her question got me thinking about gender roles and the effect that images and language have on the types of interests and activities that our children see as suitable and available to them.

Since my daughter was born, I’ve been very aware of not falling into the gender stereotype toy box and I’ve tried to ensure that she has always had a variety of games and toys to play with, not just those that people traditionally associate with girls (think dolls, hoover, tea set). By providing her with a wide range of things such as trains, building blocks and tools alongside the dolls and princess stuff, I thought I was on the right track.

But I hadn’t even considered the effect that not seeing her own gender playing a certain sport may have on her.

Her football question brought home to me how the environment in which we bring up our children and the images and people we introduce them to – or don’t – send very powerful messages, often without us even realising. Both have such an impact on a child’s growing brain from a very early stage and they help to create an impression of the world for them and what possibilities are open to them.

Of course, it’s not the first time I’ve heard the debate about women’s sports coverage and how the lack of it in the media has an impact on the uptake from younger girls. In general, the media continues to present sport as a masculine arena, despite the extent of top-level women’s sport taking place. In the UK, it only achieves between 4 and 10 per cent of the total coverage; men's sport accounts for more than 80 per cent. Then there are those who actually believe women’s sport is not as exciting or technical as men’s or deem certain sports to be off limits for women. But you don’t want to get me started on those people.

In media terms, it’s a vicious cycle; less coverage of women playing sport feeds the notion that few people are interested in women’s sport. And when no one is (supposedly) interested in it, the media feels justified for its lack of coverage. But if you rarely have the opportunity to see TV coverage of women playing certain sports and only see men, like my daughter has noted, it seems to me that this just further promotes the notion, however ill conceived it may be, that women’s sport is not as important.

I know that my responsibility as a parent is to introduce my child to a wide variety of activities in interests. But the media and the wider society have big roles to play in making things equal. As well as the fight that sportswomen have on their hands as regards equal pay, getting broadcasters to increase coverage of women’s sports is a must if we are to change the status quo.

I’ve taken my daughter’s question as a cue to show her it’s not just men who are successful at playing football. But I’ll have to do more than just show her a daily newspaper or switch on the sports channels to prove my point.