Did you know, only one in ten women on lower incomes feel they completely belong in the world of exercise? It’s just one of the findings of new research for This Girl Can, which celebrates women getting active in all their jiggly, sweaty glory.

After ten years, the campaign is as determined as ever to narrow the gender gap and get more women into physical activity. A major new campaign phase, launching in autumn 2025, will focus on those women who stand to gain the most from getting active, but face the greatest barriers.

This Girl Can has carried out extensive new research to understand women in our communities and what could help them take part in more activity. The research found that a massive 84% of women were looking for practical support that would help them feel more welcome in physical activity settings, which could include childcare, flexible timings or women-only facilities.

A Big Opportunity

This shows that there’s a great opportunity for all of us to do more to demonstrate what true inclusion looks and feels like, and benefit from welcoming new women to our activities in return.
By learning from the campaign research, we can all play our part in helping more women to join in, give physical activity a go, have fun and feel good about themselves.
Read the insight report and consider how you and your team could help more women feel like the activities you offer are for women like them. This might mean making small changes to your activities, or how you tell people about them.
With the campaign motivating more women to look for exercise options, it’s time to see how you can help really make an impact. Together we can help more women feel like they belong in physical activity, and get active in ways that work for them.

The Insight

This Girl Can have identified women on lower incomes as the focus on their next campaign. They will look at women from this group who are also:

• Aged 55 - 74
• Pregnant or with babies under one year old
• From Black communities
• From South Asian Communities
  
  

Their new insight aims to understand the barriers to being active in these groups of women, investigate the motivators that will get women moving despite the, and explore what women need to start and keep moving. They are referring to the women they are targeting as 'our women'.

The scale of the problem:

• Only 9% of our women are active in a typical week
• Only one in 10 of our women feel they completely belong in the world of physical activity
• Almost one in six of our women have felt so unwelcome in a physical activity setting that they have never returned to that type of activity or lost all confidence to try something new.
  

Barriers

Many women are stuck in 'getting ready' mode; they have a high intent to want to engage in physical activity, but are not yet doing so. Barriers vary and may include:

• Functional things like affordability, time and accessibility
• Physical limitations such as pain and lack of energy
• Emotional barriers such as feeling embarrassed or inadequate

Motivators

Although 'our women' recognise the many benefits of exercise, they often associate it with long-term goals like weight management or overall health improvements - both of which require consistency. However, they may overlook the immediate benefits, such as increased energy and a better mood, which can be felt the very same day.

View the full Insight Report.

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