By Nick Morrison @nsdmorrison, Forbes Magazine
As we reach the business end of the World Cup, it is easy to forget that while watching sport has never been so popular, taking part is another matter. And one particular question is exercising the minds of school leaders and sports bodies alike: how to get more girls to take up sport? Participation rates in sport among school-age children are low for both sexes, but for girls they are worryingly so.
Figures published by the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation, a U.K. organization that aims to promote physical activity, show that girls start doing significantly less physical activity than boys by the age of nine.
By 15, just 15% of girls are doing the recommended 60 minutes activity a day, compared with 32% of boys. One in five girls does no physical activity in a week, even though it is compulsory in school. A number of reasons have been put forward for this lack of exertion, including social pressures and the standard of changing rooms.
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