There is limited research indicating that women are more susceptible to concussions, and potentially can suffer more severe symptoms than men.
There is no evidence yet that Women are more prone to CTE than Men (in fact only one professional female athlete has been diagnosed with CTE) and we know concussion alone doesn't cause CTE, but is rightfully focused on because repetitive concussion is one of the few quantifiable indicators of cumulative brain trauma.
There is no doubt that CTE is more prevalent in athletes who have played contact sports. The percentages put out by various groups indicate that approximately 6% of population shows signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy post death, versus 9% of those who play contact sport, with of course those who play American football professionally having the highest prevalence of any group in all the different studies done globally.
Ending the NRLW or preventing women & girls from playing Rugby League does not necessarily stop an individual from developing CTE. For some players, they already have it, for others, taking away RL doesn't prevent them from exposing themselves to the risks via other sports and then unfortunately for others, they were going to develop it.
For me, the path is the game needs to take moving forward is to learn from what we know now, and continue to evolve the rules to minimise the risk of concussion and support effective recovery. Players need to be informed of the risks, and the onus needs to be put on them to decide whether they wish to play or not.
