Raising Our Athletic Daughters: How Sports Can Build Self-Esteem and Save Girls' Lives
By Jean Zimmerman and Gil Reavill (New York: Doubleday, 1998)
Hardcover - 320 pages

Reviewed by Judith Phillips Rogers

As a practicing psychologist, I see many troubled adolescent girls and their heartbroken parents, who want to know what they could have done to prevent the problems and what they can do now. This newly released book offers one very practical proactive approach - get girls involved in sports from a young age. Although this is not the solution for all families or all girls, it is a strategy which has been proven to work. The authors offer much advice and information on how parents and other concerned adults can help create the best opportunities for their daughters in sports.

"Raising Our Athletic Daughters" offers a comprehensive history and overview of girls' participation in all sports - including soccer - interspersed with stories of individual athletes and the coaches and organizers who have made a difference in their lives. The authors summarize studies documenting the numerous problems afflicting adolescent girls and present the research showing that girls who participate in sports are less likely to succumb to the all-too-prevalent woes, such as teen pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse, depression, eating disorders and suicide. Their premise is that sports can help girls develop strengths to avoid these problems and that parents should know as much as possible to help their daughters find their niches in sports.

The book maintains a high level of interest by introducing the reader to girls who excel in different sports and the factors which motivate them. Particularly touching are the accounts of girls with the most limited futures - in the bleak circumstances of inner cities to a Navajo Reservation - who have found structure, support and hope through participation in sports. Several organizations, such as Soccer in the Streets, have been developed to offer sports opportunities to the girls least likely to have a chance to play. Profiles of the women and men who have devoted themselves to coaching, being mentors and gaining financial support for these organizations may inspire more parents and adult athletes to get involved in the lives of young people.

In the last chapter, parents are given specific advice for ways they can help their daughters be comfortably involved in sports from the time they are toddlers until their late teens. They point out the need to teach the youngest girls the motor skills needed to enjoy sports and emphasize the importance of being supportive - not pushy. This is a particularly good chapter for parents of very young girls, who want some advice on how to go about things in a positive and helpful manner right from the start, to help their daughters build the confidence and self-esteem which will enable them to navigate adolescence more happily. Sound advice for parents of older teens is offered as well.

In this book general factors which continue to have a negative impact on girls in sports are also discussed, as well as hopes for practical remedies. From undesirable fields, smaller dressing rooms and less recognition in schools to the lack of viable professional leagues in most team sports, situations which discourage girls and convey the message that girls are not as worthy as boys are analyzed. The authors lament the lack of press coverage of female athletes, noting that more than 95 percent of sports reporting in the national media is devoted to male athletes. This imbalance is well known to girls and women in soccer, since the women's game gets scant mention even in the national soccer publications.

"Raising Our Athletic Daughters" should be helpful to all parents who are looking for ways to actively help their daughters avoid the many pitfalls of adolescence and may serve as an inspiration to many adult athletes (whether they have children or not) who want to do something truly meaningful to enhance the lives of young women.