Appropriation of the Environment,Motor Experiences and Sporting Activities of Girls and Women

Abstract

In the Western world women, if they are interested in sport at all, are mostly engaged in physical activities which allow an aesthetic presentation and/or a modelling of the body. They arc relatively seldom active in types of sport in which the body is employed as an instrument in trials of strength with others or with the environment. At the same time women do not claim much space in many respects—their presence does not fill a room, they do not prowl the streets, they seldom appropriate and use the natural environment for sport.

The differences between men and women in sport orientation and the use of physical space begins in childhood. The results of the research can be summed up as follows:

1. The space used by boys was much larger than the space used by girls.

2. Girls are underrepresented on public sporting grounds.

3. Boys and girls differ in the way they use play grounds and other areas appropriated for free movement.

4. Boys' activities tend to contain sporting elements while girls' leisure time activities are more sedentary.

The causes for these different play and motor preferencies lay in different areas: the family, peer-groups, sporting facilities and so on. Here are the possible sites for change.