About Women's Health
Melpomene's research on women's and girl's health issues include: 

• Programs to make physical activity accessible for women in the workforce. 
• Measuring the differences between girls and boys views of competition. 
• Parents influence on their daughter's physical activity patterns. 
• Exercising during pregnancy.

Facts and Figures

• In a Melpomene study investigating differences between girls and boys in their attitudes towards competition, the two reasons both girls and boys gave for playing sports was "having fun" and "improving at my sport." In that same Melpomene study, female coaches were significantly more likely than their male counterparts to stress "playing fairly" and "getting everyone a chance to play," while equally as likely to emphasize "winning" and "playing one's best."
• The Commonwealth Fund Survey of Adolescent Girls found that, while girls overwhelmingly indicate that they know exercise is important to health, by the time they reach high school, only 67 percent of girls exercise three times a week or more, compared with 80 percent of boys. Further, 15 percent of high school girls say they exercise less than once or twice a week, or never!
• In Melpomene research on the relationship between parental encouragement and girls' physical activity, girls identified positive comments as the best support that both their moms and dads provided-even more than expressed parental expectations or coming to games.