Although male athletes may play tough, studies have shown that women athletes are more prone to concussions than male athletes.
An article in the New York Times, “Girls are Often Neglected Victims of Concussions,” reported the results of a study that “girls sustained concussions 68 percent more often than boys did.”
When thinking of a concussion one might think of football or boxing, which mainly is stereotyped as a male sport. Lizzie Williams, a sophomore, pre-med biology major, said, “Women do play just as hard as the boys do. [women’s] neck muscles are not as developed in the same way that the men’s are which means that we cannot absorb the shock as well.”
Concussions can have a long-lasting effect on some and have no effect on others. For example, volleyball player Kate Conahan, sophomore exercise science and health promotion major, said that her concussion, although it was mild, “still effected my testing abilities.”
Although Conahan’s experience was unfortunate, lacrosse player Michelle Ferisse, sophomore accounting major, has only seen and experienced, “after the concussion [someone becomes] more timid [it ends up with them] not playing as aggressive.”
Along with Ferisse, women’s lacrosse coach Jacqueline Neary said, “I have had a player or two with them and the bad thing is they always need to miss games usually as a result.”
According to the article “Female Lacrosse Players need Equality of Protection,” Neil Osterweil, a writer for Med Page Today, and Andrew E. Lincoln, of Johns Hopkins researched and found that over the course of four years, female high school and college lacrosse players had significantly more head, face and eye injuries than male players.
CBS reported that the study found that “football still dominates the field for concussions, [but] in high school soccer girls were 64 percent more likely to sustain a concussion- usually from falling while trying to head the ball.”
Studies also were shown according to this CBS article that “basketball girls were 300 percent more likely to get a concussion [than male basketball players].”
