Men don't have a monopoly on physical prowess when women and men are matched in size and level of training, the strength gap closes. Yet as breakthroughs among elite women athletes grow more and more astounding, it begins to appear that strength and physical skill-for all women-is only a matter of learning and training. They have also been deprived of motor stimulation that is essential for brain growth. By sixteen, they have already lost bone density and turned themselves into prime candidates for osteoporosis. By adolescence, their strength and aerobic powers have started to decline unless the girls are exercising vigorously-and most aren't. The Frailty Myth presents new evidence that girls are weaned from the use of their bodies even before they begin school. It is Dowling's controversial thesis that women succumb to societal pressures to appear weak in order to seem more "feminine." The myth of female frailty, with its roots in nineteenth-century medicine and misogyny, has had a damaging effect on women's health, social status, and physical safety. These are key questions that Colette Dowling, author of the bestselling The Cinderella Complex, raises in her provocative new book. Can women be equal to men as long as men are physically stronger? And are men, in fact, stronger?
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