Golf
Golf participation overview
Around 0.12 million women play golf at least once a week.
While golf is the 11th most popular sport for women, it is still dominated by men with almost six times as many men playing at least once a week as women.
Golf is more popular with older women (55+) than younger women (16-34) and it is therefore unsurprising that one in ten female golfers are retired.
Celebrating Silver, Going for Gold
Celebrating Silver, Going for Gold marks WSFF's 25th birthday with a look back at a quarter century of records from women's sport.
From Tessa Sanderson winning Olympic gold in 1984, to the IOC's decision in 2009 to add women's boxing to the London 2012 programme, the report charts both administrative and athletic milestones. Its pages are brought to life through a striking spread of photography and montage of memories from leading figures in sport.
In the report you will find both stories of WSFF and the past 25 years of women’s sport – presented in a way which we hope fulfils two objectives; firstly, to explain who we are, where we came from and where we are heading and secondly, to give you goose bumps.
We want you to feel the same shiver which travelled down our spines when we relived moments like Tessa Sanderson standing proudly atop the medal podium at the 1984 Olympic Games, Dame Kelly Holmes’ wide eyed shock at winning the second of her two gold medals in Athens, and the moment when England midfielder Jill Scott rose above a crowd of defenders to send England into the final of a major championship for the first time in 25 years.
While looking back fills us with joy, it is looking forward which really excites us. We are now operating in a time when more doors are being opened for women in sport and the amount of people working towards that same goal is growing. So while we’re proud to be celebrating our 25th birthday this year, we are already planning for the years ahead which we hope will bring even more reasons to be proud and of course, more goose bumps.
Archery
Archery participation overview
This year around 19,500 women took part in archery at least once every four weeks – a decline of 0.02 percentage points on the previous year, but participation still remains higher than 2007-08.
Archery attracts more female participants than similar activities, such as shooting and fencing.
45% of female archers are 35-54 years of age. Participants are more likely to be from high income households.
