Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man's World

A collegiate athlete is an athlete competing on a university team in conjunction with taking academic studies at the institution. As in the case of Fleshman at Stanford, many athletes are able to qualify for partial or full scholarships to represent the university. While this is an amazing opportunity that benefits many young people, including Fleshman, Fleshman suggests in her work that competitive programs demanding consistent achievement in a woman’s late teens and early twenties are challenging, given the natural performance dip that occurs for women around this age. This can cause enormous stress and create an atmosphere of unhealthy competition, disordered eating, low self-confidence, and injury.

In the case of natural female development (which can sometimes be delayed or impeded through intense training), female athletes can expect to experience a performance dip in terms of their athletic ability and results. This is a result of gained fat and hormonal changes. Many female athletes may experience immense distress at this dip, which Fleshman argues isn’t adequately understood or talked about, leading female athletes to blame themselves and their coaches to blame the athletes. Fleshman argues that this is part of a male culture in sport, which prioritizes leanness and demands linear progression, leading many female athletes to injuries and disordered eating.