Physical health

Did you know that more than 80% of women are not doing enough physical activity to benefit their health? Young women aged 16 – 24 are nearly half as active as their male counterparts. The statistics are even worse for low income and black and minority ethnic women.

Forecasts in participation rates for women in the next ten years show an even gloomier picture: one forecast shows a potential fall of 5.5% by 2017. This could amount to 1.25 million fewer women being sufficiently active.

At the same time, three out of five women believe that they do enough exercise to be healthy, whereas in reality less than one in five are actually doing enough.

These figures come at a time when Sport England has pledged to increase participation in sport and exercise by 1% every year. A target of getting two million more people active by 2012 from low participation groups (including women) has been set.

Government is facing up to the challenge of creating a fitter and healthier nation – and the London 2012 Olympics have been sold on a promise of a legacy of increased participation – but this report argues that it’s time we faced up to the realities of trying to create a nation of more active women and girls.

It’s time … the sport sector viewed women on an equal basis as men.

It’s time … we made women aware of the importance of being active, and provided the activities and facilities that women want, where they want, and at the times they want.

It’s time … we took meaningful action to challenge a culture that allows girls to grow up believing it is more important to be thin than healthy.

The project was designed to gain a better understanding of how to motivate women to become more active. Today, 16 year-old girls leave school half as active as their male counterparts, often with a negative attitude to sport and fitness and with critically low levels of confidence. This programme set out to create a fitness experience that would appeal to this audience, change their attitude to exercise and lead to a more active and healthier way of life.

SitC was designed and delivered by a partnership between the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSFF) and the Fitness Industry Association (FIA).

Key elements of the programme were personal mentoring and opportunities to ‘meet’ other participants through group sessions and via the SitC website. The young women were successfully recruited with the help of a feminine brand and celebrity ambassadors who fronted a tailored PR campaign. All that was asked in return was for the women to share their highs, lows, aches and pains with us through surveys, focus groups and online diaries.

The results surpassed even our highest hopes:

• Six months after completing the programme, 72% of participants are more active than they were before

• Before the programme, 63% of participants were worried about what they looked like when they exercised. This dropped to just under half

• 88% of participants agreed that ‘SitC has reminded me how good it feels to be active’

• Three-quarters of the young women now have increased confidence to go on and try new activities

“There is no way that I am giving exercise up again now, I feel so much better in myself – better mood, lots more energy etc. Even though I don’t always want to go to the gym, I know I’ll feel so much better once I’ve actually been!”