ukactive and Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign have joined forces to publish a practical guide to support fitness and leisure operators in getting more women and girls active within their facilities.
The guide, called ‘How to improve your services for women and girls: As told by the 51%’, is designed to help gyms and leisure facilities to reduce the barriers experienced by many women and girls who would like to be more active – with the title reflecting the fact that women make up over half of the population.
The work forms part of a shared ambition proposed by Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, between ukactive, the government and its agencies, to grow the membership of these facilities by more than five million people by the end of the decade.
Before the pandemic, fitness-based activities were a major contributor to female participation in physical activity. Sport England’s Active Lives Survey 2019 showed that 21 per cent of women and girls aged 16 and over had taken part in fitness classes at least twice in the previous 28 days. It also showed rising demand, with a 1.6 per cent rise between 2018-2019 in women and girls taking part in weights session at least twice in the previous 28 days.
In September this year a survey of 2,000 women and girls by Sport England and Savanta ComRes showed a desire from women to do more physical activity, with 57 per cent of women stating that they intend to do more physical activity, compared to 44 per cent of men – highlighting a huge opportunity for providers to cater to this demand and audience.
The guide includes practical guidance and checklists to help improve the engagement, experience and confidence of women and girls using gyms and leisure facilities.
It features advice on how to improve online communication and messaging to women to reduce anxiety around worries and fears they have about entering this setting, which ranges from where to go when they arrive, to how to perform specific exercises.
The guide highlights the importance of increasing awareness of the overall health benefits of being active for a female audience and offers advice on robust policies to tackle personal safety fears.
It also includes case studies from operators in both the public and private sector that have implemented successful strategies to improve services for women and girls, from staff training and interaction, to flexible programming, specialist equipment introductions, and commitments to personal safety.
