Whether it’s on your school’s basketball court or the soccer field at your local park, these days you’re likely to see just as many girls playing sports as boys. But that wasn’t always the case.
As recently as the early 1970s, girls and women in the United States had few opportunities to get in the game—any game. Back then, many middle schools and high schools didn’t offer any team sports for girls. And at the college level, universities that did have women’s sports teams typically gave them just a fraction of the funding that their men’s teams received.
These days you are likely to see just as many girls playing sports as boys. That is true whether it is on your school’s basketball court or the soccer field at your local park. But that was not always the case.
As recently as the early 1970s, girls and women in the United States had few opportunities to get in the game—any game. Back then, many middle schools and high schools did not offer any team sports for girls. And at the college level, universities that did have women’s sports teams typically gave them just a fraction of the funding that their men’s teams received.