Physical Activity & Sport in the Lives of Girls THE PRESIDENT’S
COUNCIL ON PHYSICAL FITNESS AND SPORTS (PCPFS) serves as a
catalyst to promote, encourage and motivate the development of
physical activity, fitness and sport participation for all
Americans. This report expresses the PCPFS’s mission to inform
the general public of the importance of developing and
maintaining physical activity and fitness in our daily lives,
and to heighten awareness of the links that exist between
regular physical activity and good health. In the past,
involvement in sport and physical activity has been primarily
associated with males. Over the past two decades, however,
girls’ and women’s involvement in such activity has increased
dramatically. This is in large part due to the impact of Title
IX, federal legislation passed in 1972 designed to prohibit sex
discrimination in educational settings. For example, prior to
Title IX, 300,000 young women participated in interscholastic
athletics nationwide; today, that figure has leaped