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The advancement of access and opportunities for girls and women in health enhancing physical activity in recent decades is a matter of record. Yet despite burgeoning interest and increased female participation in sport and recreational physical activity, few women are active enough to benefit their health. Even after extensive government campaigns are repeatedly used to educate the public, fewer women than men participate in every age group. Something is drastically wrong when exercise is said to be associated with so many health benefits, yet only a small portion of the female population exercises sufficiently to accrue these benefits. It is important to critically evaluate the challenges inherent in achieving social equity in opportunities for healthy physical activity for all women. As we gain new understandings about how health gains can be achieved by reducing social inequality rather than providing more medical care, we can see how involvement in healthy exercise is closely entwined with the social and economic status of women, disempowering stereotypes of the female body and the issue of control over women's bodies. This paper explores central tensions in the current debate about promoting female health through physical activity across the lifespan by focusing upon (i) the continued medicalization of the female body; (ii) adolescence and the tyranny of physical appearance over health and physical activity choices; (iii) menopause and the perpetuation of disempowering stereotypes into old age; and (iv) issues of diversity and the impact of 'race' and ethnicity upon female health and physical activity. These issues are then examined in light of the discourses of recent population health strategies in Canada and the U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health (1996) which both (in differing degrees) demonstrate a continued preoccupation with individual lifestyle change and cautious medical prescription for exercise as recipes for better female health.

Some researchers have suggested that about 50% of aging decline is preventable through improved life-style habits such as participation in regular exercise, yet exercise as a resource for healthier survival is being ignored by many aging women. Though recent research findings highlight regular physical activity as a potent factor in combatting hypokinesis (the disease of inactivity), numerous real and perceived barriers to exercise stand between the older woman and her ability to achieve a better quality of life. Among strategies that have been developed to overcome these barriers are social empowerment initiatives that may encourage women to combat disability by engaging in regular exercise.

Despite growing indications of increased participation in healthful physical activity among the elderly, aging women tend to participate in exercise and sport to a lesser extent than their male peers. This paper suggests that strongly held beliefs about the potential risks of vigorous exercise deter many elderly women from being physically active. It then examines the gendered nature of myths and stereotypes concerning aging and physical activity and explores those social and cultural factors that have historically persuaded aging women to practice "being" old and inactive before "becoming" old. The purpose is to elaborate upon studies in the history of aging which indicate that popular perceptions rather than reality shaped social expectations, professional prescriptions, and public policy. These studies suggest how the creation of negative stereotypes around the aging female paved the way for an unbalanced version of the realities of female old age, at times delimiting aspirations and constraining opportunities for vigorous and healthful physical activity.

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