Lessons learned about gender equity and inclusion in physical education: Kimberly Oliver and Nate McCaughtry

Introduction Issues of equity and inclusion, particularly with respect to gender, have been acknowledged, debated, critiqued and struggled with from a variety of theoretical perspectives across physical education, physical activity research and scholarly writing (McDonough and Croker, 2005; McKenzie et al., 2002; Oliver and Lalik, 2004a, 2004b; Trost et al., 2002; Vertinsky, 1992; Wilson et al., 2005; Wright, 1995). Despite two solid decades of scholarship, we continue to see multiple forms of gender inequity in schools and in physical education and activity settings (McCaughtry, 2004, 2006; Oliver and Lalik, 2004a; Oliver et al., 2009; Oliver and Hamzeh, 2010). Further, we continue to see a decrease in girls’ physical activity participation, despite increased awareness about and interest in rectifying forms of gender inequity that threaten girls’ participation in physical activity (GordonLarsen et al., 2001; Wolf et al., 1993).