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I nmost countries around the globe, adolescent girls are less physically active than boys. The health benefits of physical activity are well documented. For children and adolescents, they include improved cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness, improved bone and cardiometabolic health, better cognitive outcomes, and reduced adiposity and symptoms of depression. This evidence underpins the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines on physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour.
They reaffirm the importance of regular PA of different types: First, young people aged 5-17 should do at least an average of 60 minutes per day of moderate-to-vigorous intensity, mostly aerobic PA across the week. This includes active play and games, sports and exercise, physical education, and active travel such as walking, wheeling, or cycling.
At least 78 per cent of 14–16-year-old girls understand that physical activity is important, yet only 28 per cent enjoy taking part. The reasons as to why there is a significant gender gap with participation of sport and physical activity is due to the gender ideologies society has placed on the certain roles and ways an individual should act or appear physically. There needs to be more encouragement for women and especially girls, to participate in physical activity in sports to help bridge the gap between genders.
FEMALES LIMITED
From working full time jobs to having to do the motherly duties at home, there is no time for women to dedicate an hour to being physically active, unless further planned out.
When women or girls do participate in physical activity or sports, there is a stigma that comes along with it as well. Since there are gender physiological differences between men and women; it is viewed that women are lesser of the two.
Since this judgment of women depicts them not being strong enough, there is no encouragement from society to continue with elite sports that are male dominant. The differences between genders regarding the encouragement of continuous participation in physical activity and sports have a vast gap.
From when boys are young, there is always an encouragement to run around and play and to try all and every different sport available. In contrast with young girls, the participation is usually limited to their first few years of being in primary school.
Once puberty hits, the decline of participation for girls begins and continues into their adulthood. It is important to encourage our girls to participate in sports because studies show that girls who play sports are more likely to graduate from college, land competitive jobs and work in male-dominated industries.
In short, to get girls to play sports is to give them an advantage when it comes to self-confidence, discipline, leadership, problem-solving, teamwork and resilience - critical skills that will serve them when they’re in middle school, high school, college and beyond.