For many women sport can be intimidating. Fewer women than men play sport regularly – two million fewer 14-40 year olds in fact, according to a survey carried out by Sport England. Now, that’s no small number. But 75 percent of women do want to be more active, so what’s the barrier?
The survey found it’s a fear of judgement – on appearance and ability - that puts women of all ages off exercising. The aim of the This Girl Can campaign is to empower women to become more active with taglines like ‘Sweating like a pig, feeling like a fox’ and ‘I kick balls, deal with it’.
It's a campaign close to our hearts since we want to encourage women to get fit too. In fact, we’re launching a monthly #ELLEfit run club where the focus is on fun (there will be glow sticks) not being the fastest. Find out how to get a place here…
Sport England CEO Jennie Price, said of the survey: 'The figures on participation are crystal clear. There is a significant gender gap.... I believe we can tackle this, because our research shows that 75% of women would like to do more.
‘Before we began this campaign, we looked very carefully at what women were saying about why they felt sport and exercise was not for them. Some of the issues, like time and cost, were familiar, but one of the strongest themes was a fear of judgement. Worries about being judged for being the wrong size, not fit enough and not skilled enough came up time and again.'
The campaign is the story of four real girls: Grace, Kelly, Julie and Victoria and how they are not letting anything get in their way. See the full advert here;
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For more about This Girl Can, go to www.thisgirlcan.co.uk where you can join the debate (the hashtag on Twitter is #thisgirlcan), and find out more about the campaign.
