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The purposes of this review article are to: 1) present empirical studies which have compared the development of motor skills for boys and girls in the early childhood years, 2) present studies which have made gender comparisons for similar and related motor skills for older adults, and 3) make comparisons between the younger and older age group literature in terms of gender and causal factors contributing to gender differences. It was concluded that: 1) young boys and older men are superior to young girls and older women in power-dependent skills. Biological and environmental factors were discussed as they relate to gender differences in one power-dependent skill, throwing, throughout the life-span, and 2) young girls excel at hopping, skipping, hand-eye coordination, limb and body control, and balance tasks compared to young boys. Of these tasks, balance and hand-eye coordination are the only skills which are typically measured for young children and older adults. For balance in older age, the results are equivocal but suggestions were made for understanding why women may have lost their performance advantage in older adulthood. For hand-eye coordination, women are not clearly better than men as they were in youth. Reasons for life-span changes are suggested.

Nancy Langhorne Astor, the first woman member of English Parliament, used sports as an asset in promoting worthy political causes and as a force in advocating women’s health issues. She championed childhood education and through her sponsorship of new facilities and sporting organizations made sports a much more acceptable pursuit for women of her era. Many strident criticisms of her behavior can be dismissed in light of her era’s gender bias against which she was a warrior her entire life. This retrospective study of her life leads to new interpretations of her contributions to her 20th Century world.

In Germany there is a huge discrepancy between positive attitudes toward physical activity and actual practice of sport. According to representative studies more than 80% of the population is convinced that for various reasons, especially those of health, it is very important to take up a sport (Kaschuba, 1989). However, only 21% of the male and no more than 14% of the female population (older than 14) were reported to practice a sport at least once a week (Opaschowski, 1995).

This article focuses on the question of how a relationship to sport develops in the course of the lives of girls and women. The empirical data derives from a project on “Sport in the Lives of Women” in which women active in football (soccer), gymnastics/aerobics and tennis were interviewed about their biographies and their experience with physical activities. The theoretical background is based on approaches towards life course and biography, gender and gender relations, and socialization. Typical patterns of sport involvement in the different stages of life, e.g. the important role of the parents in early childhood and the importance of peers at school were found.,.

In addition, different types of sport commitment could be identified. Certain patterns, for example, were dependent on the combination of the simultaneous practice of different types of sport and the alternation between practice and non-practice of sport. In this way it was possible to distinguish between all-round sportswomen and women who practice sport for reasons of health. In general, sport biographies develop through the close interaction of social factors and individual decisions.