After the U.S. Women’s national soccer team won the 2015 World Cup then President Obama congratulated the team for helping redefine what it meant to play like a girl. “This team taught all of America’s children that playing like a girl means you’re a badass,” said Obama at an event honoring the team.
But despite viral videos, and the efforts of nonprofits like Play Like A Girl, a recent College Pulse survey reveals that young men and women athletes still perceive their masculinity and femininity quite differently.
When asked to place themselves on a 10-point scale (with 1 being “completely masculine”), male college athletes are more likely than male college students overall to perceive themselves as being masculine, scoring an average of 3.5 compared to 4 among all male college students.
But the reverse is true for female college athletes. Female athletes actually see themselves as being less feminine than the average female college student. The average female college student scores 6.9 (with “10” being completely feminine) while female student athletes average a score of 6.5.
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Methodology: Results are based on 9,250 full-time and part-time students attending four-year colleges or universities in the U.S. who are part of College Pulse’s American Student Panel.
