Women and Girls Insight
According to Sport England only 31.6% of women and girls play sport at least once a week, compared to 41.7% of men.
Nationally, 13 million women said they wanted to play more sport. Nearly half of these are currently inactive.
The following insight explores the motivations and attitudes of women to sport, as well as the barriers they may face in being physically active.
Women in sport
If you are unable to find specific information below, consider reviewing the Women In Sport publication page, which contains insight entirely dedicated to women and girls. Alternatively, get in touch with our insight team for help.
Life In Lockdown (2021) (pdf, 1.25 MB)
The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Teenage Girls’ Lives and Physical Activity
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Reframing Sport For Teenage Girls (2019) (pdf, 3.14 MB)
Building strong foundations for teenage girls’ futures.
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This Girl Can Insight Toolkit (2018) (pdf, 4.51 MB)
The various issues surrounding female participation in sport and physical activity.
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Go Where Women Are (2018) (pdf, 1.55 MB)
Women, their relevant motivations, barriers and triggers to getting more active, and what this means for sports.
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Project Delivery
When planning a project or service, consider making use of the following insight to inform your decisions.
Puberty & Sport: An Invisible Age (2018) (pdf, 15.94 MB)
Women in Sport’s research explores the impact of puberty on girls’ engagement in physical activity.
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Menopause, me and physical activity (2018) (pdf, 7.03 MB)
Women in Sport’s research explores the impact of the menopause on physical activity behaviour.
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Getting female students active (2016) (pdf, 3.18 MB)
BUCS and Women in Sport wished to further understand what works when engaging less active female students.
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Women and girls coaching tips
Coaching Women and Girls Fact Sheets (zip, 3.58 MB)
These factsheets produced by Sports Coach UK and Women in Sport, are aimed at coaches who coach women or who are interested in coaching them in the future.
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Helping the girls believe they can (2015) (pdf, 2.03 MB)
This resource provides a guide for coaches, leaders and activators to support more women and girls to enjoy sport and physical activity.
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Understand the impacts of a girl’s friendships (2018) (pdf, 1.71 MB)
Street Games’ research explores the impact of girls’ friendships and provides guidance on how to enhance these relationships in a physical activity setting.
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Contact us:
If you’ve been unable to find what you’re looking for, or need help, please get in touch. Our insight team will be able to advise on other studies, or help you understand and implement the findings above into your work.
Alternatively, if you’re looking for further resources to help women get physically active, take a look at This Girl Can. This is a programme dedicated to promoting the benefits of physical activity for women.
Rachel Cooke
Insight & Evaluation Officer
- Data collection and analysis
- Process and programme evaluation
- Research and insight