Physical Activity of Women in Australia

This blog post is in response to a reading by Gilbert Caluya for my Gender & Sexuality course at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia by lecturer Margaret Mayhew.

Source: Caperchione, C et al. 2011, ‘Physical activity behaviours of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) women living in Australia: A qualitative study of socio-cultural influences’, BMC Public Health 2011, 11:26

This research article by Caperchione, Kolt, Tennent, and Mummery discusses the study conducted to examine the socio-cultural influences on the physical activity behaviors of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) women living in Australia. They do this by identifying the barriers, constraints, and possible enablers to physical activity participate for this population of women.

The discourses that I identified in this reading were both social and cultural acquired data. I considered the data socially discoursed because the data from the study was taken from a range of women from various racial/ethnic groups such as: Bosnian, Arabic speaking, Filipino, and Sudanese. I also took the information on the areas in Australia for which the information was taken was New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland as a part of the social discourse. 

I considered the discourse to be cultural because the female participants in the study were encouraged to speak on their opinions, perceptions and beliefs in regard to the social and cultural differences on the physical activities.

Based off of this information, the study was able to demonstrate that the understanding of health and physical activities  of women of these ethnic groups in these aforementioned areas, are subjectively complex and are heavily intertwined with socio-cultural influence. In further conclusion the information gathered from the study was suggested to be used to market/ promote health initiatives to women of similar cultures/ethnic groups. In addition the information gathered from this study also can be used for more research for scientists/ sociologist who wish to look further into women's health and physical activity.

As a woman of color in the United States who is quite physically active, I find it more common for non-minority women to be more physically active in comparison. Why is this? My educated guess is because of the social and cultural differences between different races. For example, women of color are usually of the working class and may not have time to work out, whereas caucasian women are usually do not have to work as often and therefore have time for leisure workouts--or physical activity.

Since this week's readings focused on sports and the disparities in race and gender in physical activity, here's a link to a youtube video on the history of women in sport in Australia and New Zealand.

Click the link below and tell me what you think!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptK2F_Jx2z8