As little as two hours of exercise a week reduces a teenage girls’ risk of breast cancer, a disease that will afflict one out of every eight American women. Women who play sports also reduce their risks of heart disease. We need only look at generations of women who were denied the opportunity to play sports and discouraged from engaging lifestyles where they were active and strong—our mothers and grandmothers—to see what happens when women are discouraged from participating in sports. One out of every two women over the age of sixty are suffering from osteoporosis. Weight-bearing exercise lays down bone mass that can prevent osteoporosis.
Sport is one of the most important socio-cultural learning environments in which our children participate. We cannot tolerate individuals or the media instilling unwarranted fears in parents and their daughters that result in women choosing not to play sports.
