Women’s Running Network
The Women’s Running Network (WRN) was founded 11 years ago in Exeter to encourage women to run who would not normally consider that they could. Our ethos of all shapes, all sizes, all ages, all stages embraces all women and encourages them to improve their fitness and well-being. Our youngest is 12 and our oldest at present is 73.
The aim of WRN was to get women active but initially with no plans of expanding outside Exeter. As we grew our success spread to other parts of the country.
AimHI
Aim HI is a resource that contains over 50 activities for girls, based on the idea that good health is a combination of physical, mental and social wellbeing. The resource supported Girlguiding UK’s Healthy Individual Campaign for 2008. The activities touch on the areas of health, good and bad, that young people may encounter in their day-to-day lives. The pack was designed to show leaders that including healthy living activities in their programmes is easy and fun and to encourage them to continue doing so in the future.
Physical activity and older women
In the autumn of 2004, the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSFF) commission researchers from Bristol University to carry out a six-month qualitative research study into the physical activity perceptions of older women. The focus was on women aged 64 and over from lower socio-economic groups living independently in Cornwall, South West England. WSFF wanted to hear the views of women who did not consider themselves particularly physically active or sporty and find out their reasons for not participating.
Physical activity and mothers
In 2005, the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation commissioned Opinion Leader Research (OLR) to carry out a study into socially excluded mothers with young children to enhance the understanding of the barriers that these women face and possible solutions.
To swim or not to swim: women and swimming 2005-06
In autumn 2005 WSF and the Amateur Swimming Association commissioned HNI International to carry out a six month research project into women aged 25-34 and their views on swimming.
A mixture of survey data and focus group work methods were used in the analysis. Nine focus groups were held in total across the country and different groups of women.
Summary of the key findings:
Why some women DO swim:
For leisure.
An enjoyable swimming occasion for young women consists of a swim with the following mix- a reasonable amount of personal space, a pool which is not too noisy, has plenty of ambient light, is non-rectangular and is visually attractive.
Many young women liked the notion of swimming outdoors. They were attracted to the feeling of freedom and being close to nature. This was considered to be ‘how swimming should be’- almost, swimming without boundaries.
Swimming was seen as a health solution during pregnancy but not outside. However there was low engagement between women and swimming as a health solution.
Swimming is good non-weight bearing exercise.
For the psychological benefits. Swimming creates a positive frame of mind.
Why some women DO NOT swim: barriers to swimming
The main overarching issues are associated with convenience, cleanliness, body image and lack of confidence.
Many women who do not swim regularly see swimming as an activity associated with holidays. At that time, they will devote considerable time to preparing for the occasion. This includes shaving and waxing the body and purchasing suitable attire.
For many women, it was important to be anonymous at a swimming pool. This was closely associated with body issues. For some, it was better to swim at a pool not too close to home in case you were recognised. There were no such concerns over swimming when on holiday where you were extremely unlikely to meet anyone you knew.
A further problem for swimming was to make the activity salient to the lives of as many young women as possible. Many women did not find it relevant and did not see swimming as a way to improve health as being an attraction to take part.
The more athletic women had fewer concerns over body exposure, particularly those who swam regularly. Other young women were concerned not just about being exposed in front of men but also other women, where ‘looking good’ to women of similar type who were using the same pool, was thought to be important.
‘Chlorine’ was a much used word. It was associated as much with a ‘lack of cleanliness’ as ‘cleanliness’. Chlorine was considered to be unpleasant and to have a lasting effect on the body such as spoiling the hair and skin. Chlorine was a major barrier to swimming and discouraged some women from visiting the pool. Chlorine was also associated with the smell of a pool which was also thought to be unpleasant.
When it came to going for a swim, there was a hierarchy of decision making factors common to all young women. These were in the following order:
- Cultural, such as non-swimming families, body exposure with some cultural groups;
- Internal, such as self consciousness, low self-esteem, inertia, poor past experiences;
- Logistical, for example, transport difficulties, time of sessions;
- External, for example fear of water, size and noise in pool, convenience, carrying wet equipment, shaving body hair; and finally,
- Social, for example, if one’s friends did not swim or other better past-time choices and options.
Swimming was also generally considered to be a time consuming activity and this was due to the high ‘hassle’ factor involved. Preparing the body ready to attend a swimming pool, changing, drying the body and hair were just a few of these ‘hassle’ factors.
Whereas married women with children were comfortable with young people using the pool at the same time, single young women preferred to swim at times when children were not in attendance.
Women with children considered it important that their children learnt to swim in order to be safe but were not particularly concerned to take part themselves.
Interventions and future policies
Interventionist approaches need to be sought to engage non-pool users. When women stop swimming, it is hard to re-engage them. These approaches therefore need to both breakdown the barriers identified above and be linked to other incentives that either already or are likely to engage young women.
There should be a mix of bathing provision in all pools. Many women are happy to take part in mixed bathing sessions; others prefer to have single sex sessions. Women only sessions should therefore be sensitively constructed with female lifeguards (and swimming teachers where needed) as well as being sited in areas where there are no immediate viewing areas.
Membership of some cultural groups means that young women find it difficult to take part in swimming. Body exposure can become an issue from quite an early age. Pool programming needs to account for as many of these groups as possible and communicating both the positive aspects of swimming and the ease with which it is possible to take part are becoming increasingly important. Often the women in those groups are simply not aware that there are both people from the same cultural group who do swim regularly and opportunities for them to take part.
Care and thought should be given to the wearing of lightweight tops such as t-shirts. These can lead to safety concerns as the swimmer can be dragged down by cumbersome materials and are of concern to some pool operators. This situation could be avoided by offering session times when it is possible to wear these garments. Clearly these need to be low usage times; restricted to safe parts of the pool but this type of flexibility will encourage some larger women to take part.
Personalisation of swimming is key to future success. This refers to personal swimming programmes, teachers on hand to assist and offer tips, plenty of personal space and a well thought through and appropriate timetable.
Opportunities to swim need to be maximised at a local level as women are unlikely to travel for more than 10 to 15 minutes. Pool closures and openings are important because facilities need to present appropriate opportunities at the right time of day.
In areas with large minority groups, mixed changing facilities can be a problem and should be regarded as a barrier to be addressed.
The main target area should be women who do not swim. Initially, they should be reached through just a few points of maximum influence. Friends, relatives and the like are unlikely to bring sufficient influence. Swimming has to be made salient to their lives. At first, the best routes could be via groups such as Sure Start, local Imams and temples, weight watchers and the play school network.
In general, pools should look to provide an accessible timetable of both programmed and unstructured swimming that embraces all social and cultural groups and gives everyone the opportunity to take part at an appropriate time of day given that many women in this age group will have family considerations. In short, the maxim should be, ‘making it easy’.
Muslim women in sport
The world of sport is male dominated and women often come up against considerable challenges. In this fact sheet we address those issues faced by Muslim women and consider what their religion says about participation.
Barriers to sports participation for women and girls
In this fact sheet we explore the range of practical, personal and social and cultural barriers that prevent women and girls becoming involved in sport and exercise. Our list of barriers also contains ideas for sports deliverers to implement to encourage and enable women and girls to participate.
Sweat in the City
Sweat in the City (SitC) was an innovation research project to help to find out why 16- 24 year old women are half as active as men of the same age. With the help of a feminine brand, celebrity ambassadors and a chance to discover a ‘fitter and healthier you’, over 2000 young women across London were recruited and provided with a three-month free and mentored gym membership.
Faith and Action: Born to Succeed
The project aims to tackle the low number of Muslim women and girls in sport, in order to bring equality through the arena of sport. This is done through the provision of a suitable environment in which they could train and compete against women and girls of the same and different faiths.
Sweat in the City: How 2000 young women discovered the positive power of exercise
This report details the innovative research project Sweat in the City which project provided over 2000 inactive 16 – 24 year old women a three month free and mentored gym membership and followed their journey.
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!”