How Girls' Soccer Helps Women In The Workforce.

Wear a soccer uniform one day, and chances are you’ll be trading it in for a power suit when you grow up. Or so concludes a recent study that looked at the chicken-and-egg question: Does playing sports help people become more successful, or are successful people just more likely to play sports?

In her paper titled, "Beyond the Classroom: Using Title IX to Measure the Return to High School Sports," Wharton business and public policy professor Betsey Stevenson offers empirical evidence that playing sports leads to more education and better employment opportunities.

Stevenson's paper focuses on Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which expanded high school athletic opportunities for girls. Her research compares the variation in outcomes across states for girls who went to school before Title IX and after, and concludes that playing sports paid off.

"A ten percentage point rise in state-level female sports participation generates a one percentage point increase in female college attendance and a one to two percentage point rise in female labor force participation," she notes. "Furthermore, greater opportunities to play sports lead to greater female participation in previously male-dominated occupations, particularly high-skill occupations."

For the full story, including a PDF of Professor Stevenson’s paper, visit the Knowledge@Wharton website. In the meantime, we’ll see you on the pitch!