Late February saw Sport England reprise its award-winning ‘This Girl Can’ initiative aimed at helping women get active with a focus on tackling the sport and exercise ‘Enjoyment Gap’.
The fresh wave of UK work is a call-to-arms to the country’s sports clubs and exercise outfits and follows on from research which found that, while enjoyment is one of the biggest motivators for people to participate in physical activity, 2.4 million fewer women than men ‘strongly agree’ to finding sport and exercise enjoyable and satisfying. This contributes to the fact that 63% of men compared to just 60% of women are ‘active’.
The latest phase of the ongoing project, again developed in harness with agency FCB Inferno, identifies four action area to help sports organisers and activity providers to start to close this gap between the genders by dismantling the practical and emotional barriers that prevent so many women from enjoying sport.
After extensive consultation and research with women from communities across the country, the organisation aims to help meet four ‘S’ needs for exercise: ‘Social’ (help women feel part of a community), ‘Suitable’ (meet women’s needs), ‘Self-Affirming’ (help women feel confident) and ‘Safe’ (women must feel physically and emotionally safe when taking part).
Thus the latest wave of ‘This Girl Can With You’ work supports organisations across the sport and physical activity sector to develop solutions in response to these four ‘S’ action areas.
The latest phase spans awareness ads and motivational messages across multiple platforms, plus a new website for partners and a supporter’s toolkit.
The revamped This Girl Can website offers tools and ideas for organisations to address these issues and build further upon the work that many grassroots organisations and activity providers already deliver to try and close the gap.
To launch the latest wave of work, Sport England partnered with Team GB Olympic gold medallist Nicola Adams for an interactive boxing experience at London’s Westfield Stratford City on 27 February 2023. Shoppers and members of the public passing by were invited to fight against barriers holding women back from getting active by using illustrative boxing gloves and punch bags designed and painted by women’s art collective Galphabetics.
This was followed by a roll out of marketing creative which, as with previous iterations of the initiative, features real women and genuine groups as they break down barriers to help women in their communities to get active.
The central, hero film features a mash-up of four groups/organisations working to close the equality gap are showcased in a set of new ‘This Girl Can’ films called ‘Black Girls Do Run’, ‘Goal Diggers FC’, ‘Muslim Girls Fence’ and ‘Welcome Gym’ and each also has its own dedicated supporting spot.
These are further supported by individual organisation activities, events and pledges shared socially across their own channels, as well as Sport England and National Lottery platforms.
“The exercise Enjoyment Gap is yet another inequality between women and men. It can be too easy to accept things as the way they are; to not challenge the status quo. That’s not what This Girl Can is about,” explained Sport England Director Of Marketing Kate Dale. “We exist to get women active – and that means we’re here to shout about the Enjoyment Gap. Women deserve to get active as much as men; we want all women to benefit from the physical, mental and social rewards of an active life.
“From safety issues to heightened anxiety fuelled by the cost-of-living crisis, the barriers faced by women and girls in 2023 loom large and are deeply embedded in our society,” continued Dale. “So this is a call to arms; we are rallying the sport and activity industry to join us to close the Enjoyment Gap by making sure activities for women are social, suitable, self-affirming and safe. There are already organisations out there doing brilliant things, and we want to spread the word and have more people join us. With you, This Girl Can close the Enjoyment Gap.”
FCB Inferno Business Director Emily Whiteaway outlined the agency’s approach: “FCB Inferno couldn’t be prouder to continue working with Sport England and we are thrilled to launch the fifth phase of This Girl Can. This time around we celebrate some of the amazing people and partners helping to tackle the barriers women face when getting active, while inspiring others to do more to close the persistent ‘enjoyment gap’. It’s through this collective action we can ensure no woman is excluded from activity and sport”.
Nicola Adams, the first female boxer to become a double Olympic gold medallist, added: “For a long time, there was very little funding in women’s boxing – so much so that the female fighters used to have to share one shirt in tournaments. I always tried to go first so it wasn’t dripping in sweat! I was called all kinds of names as a female boxer and even remember being regularly told to take up another sport or a different career. It’s no wonder there’s such a significant enjoyment gap in the amount of women enjoying exercise, compared with men. These days, sport and fitness remain an integral part of my routine. I still train most days because it helps me feel good in myself and destress – and I’m a big advocate of encouraging women and girls to get make sure they get active too, in whatever way works for them. There are sadly still so many barriers women and girls come up against – but at the same time there are lots of organisations out there doing great work to support women them. Coach Alwyn Belcher, who is now 85 but still going strong training boxers, was so important when I was starting out in boxing. Individuals and groups who are committed to helping women and girls overcome the challenges they face have a huge impact in boosting their self-confidence, supporting mental health and getting them on the path to achieving great things.”
Black Girls Do Run Founder Tasha Thompson commented: “I founded Black Girls Do Run to create a space for women like me to come together, because it didn’t exist before. We needed a safe and self-affirming space to come together, to feel connected, to feel confident and empowered that running is a space for Black women too. But if we didn’t enjoy running together, the group wouldn’t work as well as it does. The best activity to participate in is the one you enjoy. If you enjoy it, you are most likely to stick with it and make it part of your routine. If you can make it social, and meet others to enjoy an activity with you, you will share that joy with a community which is very, very rewarding – and can motivate you to get active on the days you otherwise wouldn’t.”
The campaign was created for and briefed in by a Sport England team led by Marketing Director Kate Dale, Business Director Amy Crees, Strategist Kate Peers and Business Manager Scott Radcliffe.
It was created and developed by a group at agency FCB Inferno which included Chief Creative Officer Owen Lee, Creative Director Jessica Giles, Art Director Sarah Bignell, Copywriter Josie Beaumont, Business Director Emily Whiteaway, Account Director Michael Freeman, Account Manager Pooja Daswani, Strategy Director Tom Lindo, Design Director Sdfhkl;Becci Salmon and Designer Dante Attuoni.
Production was handled by 456 Studios with Producer Livvy Tidd, Director Charlie Coombes, Photographer Imogen Forte and Director Of Photography Evelin Van Rei. Post production and VFX was run through CHEAT and music and sound by Sine Sound plus Pitch and Sync.
Comment
An award-winning combination of campaign, movement and national programme, ‘This Girl Can’ launched back in 2015 – with further iterations in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 – to tackle the gender activity and sporting participation gap in the UK by empowering women of all ages, ethnicities, backgrounds, shapes, sizes and sporting abilities by showing them that there is no ‘right’ way to get active.
Founded on and inspired by deep dive research into exercise and sports participation across the nation, the initiative was developed by Sport England and funded by The National Lottery.
The initiative’s latest research found that 33% women say they ‘feel too tired’ or ‘don’t have enough energy’ to be physically active, 29% ‘don’t feel motivated enough’, while 31% say they ‘don’t have enough time’.
Fear of judgement prevails, with key concerns for women including worries about not being fit enough (41%), what other people think of them (32%), showing their body (31%), being on their period (24%) and wearing tight clothing (20%). Over a third (38%) of women say they have felt judged when exercising.
Safety fears are another significant barrier to women enjoying exercise. More than one in five (22%) say they’re concerned about sexual harassment when doing sport and physical activity, a statistic that almost doubles (41%) when outdoors in the dark. Three in 10 have experienced harassment first-hand while exercising, mostly on streets and in parks. Two-thirds (66%) worry about other personal safety issues, such as being mugged.
The barriers were deepened by the disruptions of the pandemic, with women slower to return to activity than men. Over a million fewer women now feel they have the opportunity to be physically active compared to pre-covid-19. More recently, the rising cost of living has become a barrier, with over a third (37%) of women saying it has had a negative impact on their ability to be active.
The project boasts more than 700,000 supporters in its nationwide community and aims to grow this group further through this phase.
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