A new study from the University of Southern Denmark shows that girls aged 16 to 19 exercise less than 20 years ago.
"We found out that three times as many boys as girls of [upper-secondary] school age do sports," Bjarne Ipsen, a researcher at the Department of Biomechanics at the University of Southern Denmark, told DR News.
Ipsen said the main explanation lies in the girls' family background – the parents' interest in sports and their educational and cultural background.
What a girl can and must do
"It is about understanding what a girl can and must do," Ipsen noted.
The study shows that the higher the level of the parents' education, and the lower the gender inequality, the more often girls exercise.
The good news for girls is that, according to the research, once they get past their late teens, they are likely to do sport just as much as men.
