You're correct to an extent - the paleo/primal paradigm is male dominated but only because a lot of women tend to be scared about "bulking" up or intimidated by jumping into convos about traditionally male-dominated sports/nutrition.

Having said that, I do not think sports and athletics are any different for women. My two girls dominate their male counterparts in many athletics and killed the president's fitness test this year. For me, I was totally intimidated by weight lifting until I took a class to force myself to do it. I was one of 3 women in the class but the only one who took it as a way to improve my body and not just to "meet men". After the first couple of months I was hooked and the men started treating me as an equal. In fact, they pushed me harder at times and for that, I was grateful. There was no double standard.

That righteous woman at Stumptuous along with the Crossfit women are making amazing strides in proving that women are equal to men in the athletics dept.

From a health, fitness and safety standpoint, I think women are much better off focusing on stereotypically 'manly' exercises like lifting and carrying very heavy things, and making muscle gain a priority. We don't naturally have as much muscle mass or strength as men due to hormones, it takes hard work to create that and lots of cardio works against it. Lean mass is one of the best predictors of long-term health and longevity.

In a paleolithic setting I suspect women did lots of walking, squatting, repetitive tasks requiring strength like digging for tubers, smashing nuts and cracking bones, and tons of load-bearing; carrying young children, camp supplies, and food, often at the same time. This is typical in all hunger-gather societies and in many nomadic/pastorialist ones as well; women carry most or all of the loads while traveling, often transporting more than their own bodyweight across long distances.

I think the most important thing is your daughters being FREEEEEEEEEEEEE to choose and having maxiumum exposure...never, ever, ever being limited by gender stereotypes.

I grew up in an era in which the world still ran on "Betty Crocker vs Marlboro Man."

I was a very inherently athletic young girl who lived and breathed to be moving.

Cutting to the chase, I did play tennis, ran some during PE in school( but there was NO opportunity for a female track, for instance) and played competitive sports like hockey and soccer during PE and competitively with other girls teams.

What I would have loved was running and running hurdles. I was made for it. When I was 12, the boys used to be out practicing for track and hurdles after school. I began running and jumping hurdles without asking anyone if I could, etc, alongside the boys, or inbetween when they were running/jumping.

Within a very short time, I was banned from running/jumping. The problem? I could out-run and out-jump all the boys and this was NOT ok. I was told much later, when I was in highschool, by a female PE teacher who had been at the school where this happened, that the male coach has timed me and I'd broken some kind of time running the 60 yard dash.

I didn't give a toot about records or even, really, about competing. I was a young girl in motion who loved being in motion with every cell of my being and who needed it too.

The import of this experiece is that still, now, at the age of 58, I find myself tearing up as I write this.

So, yeah. Women and men are different. And even among only women, we are different at different ages. But those differences are not what is most important about us. They do not and cannot define us.

I don't think in today's world, what I experieced would ever be overtly played out with young girls today.

But being free to choose and free to develop and free to push limits is a big, big deal and nothing should ever stand in the way of any girl/woman taking her body and psyche to whatever outerlimits, self defined, that she chooses.

I don't believe there are any reasons for females to do different types of exercise than men. After doing Crossfit for over a year, there is nothing that limits me in the workouts that has anything to do with being female. I can do all the same olympic lifts etc that a man can do (just less weight generally). Sprinting, running, body weight movements, pull-ups etc seem to me to be no different between the sexes.

There's a book called, lift like a man look like a goddess. Very cool. It's all about how women should lift weights like men do. The health benefits are amazing and aesthetically they end looking toned and beautiful. Don't fear weights.

I hope I don't get yelled at for this, but in the kids thread I said "kids are just little people", and here I'll just say "women are people too".

Really there are no big differences among men and women. Women may be slightly better adapted for endurance while men can sprint better on average. But I don't see any reason why a woman would do different exercises than a man. At our gym the women do everything the same as the guys, we just scale the prescribed weights by 2/3 for the women, that's the only change.

1) As a female, I love sprinting. Of all the different types of workouts I do, sprinting is, by far, my favourite. 2) I think from a health perspective, the basis is the same for men and women. When it comes down to performance, body composition, etc I think that is where you start to see differences amount people, in general.
I think the differences stem from a)differences in the stereotypical male and female workouts; b) what society considers male appropriate and female appropriate. I think if you strip away both factors, the differences are purely different.

I think there is a baseline that is good for overall health, and the rest (as long as it does not hinder your health) is up to the individual to decide. And this will likely change throughout life, circumstances, etc.

I think that a base workout problem needs strength, sprints, flexibility and enjoyment.

I feel that a great sweep of what you are looking for is over in Krista's site http://www.stumptuous.com/

Always something fresh there.. Like http://www.stumptuous.com/ladies-who-lift

The visual results might be a bit different male vs female, but that's appearance, not health and fitness.

I think everyone should lft weights... We all lose muslemass as we age, and if we want to be able to take care of outsold in old age, we need to be stronger NOW.