This Girl Can Goes International
Sport England is taking the award-winning This Girl Can campaign internationally, after agreeing a new partnership with health promotion foundation, VicHealth, to promote getting active among women of all shapes and sizes and all levels of ability in Australia.
The initial three-year partnership will see VicHealth adopt This Girl Can’s formula of showing real women and girls playing sport and getting active, to help others in the state manage the fear of judgement that holds many back.
The announcement comes as research from VicHealth finds that physical activity in Victoria sees consistently higher participation rates amongst men. Three in five Australian women are not sufficiently active, participating in less than 30 minutes of physical activity on four or more days a week, with one in five women doing no physical activity in a typical week.
The research found that the fear of judgment however is widespread in Victoria, with 41% of women aged over 25 and over being too embarrassed to exercise in public and almost half finding sporting clubs intimidating.
VicHealth is hoping to use the This Girl Can formula to help women manage this fear of judgment and get active in any way that suits them by showing the experiences and stories of women ‘like me’.
The campaign, named Campaign of the Year at the BT Sport Industry Awards 2016, will look to create an active and engaged network of women across Victoria, supporting each other and encouraging getting active. VicHealth will use social and mass media to reach and inspire women across the state and the rest of Australia.
Sport England CEO, Jennie Price, said: “The fear of judgment is a universal issue facing women the world over, and while This Girl Can has made a real difference since it launched by helping 2.8million women get active, we want to take our campaign further.
“Australian women face the same barriers to being active as English women, whether that’s worrying about how they look when they exercise, that they aren’t skilled enough to exercise or that they should be prioritising their family or work over activities.
“Using the insight we have gained over the last two years from women across England, we want to take This Girl Can international, with the ultimate goal being that girls will grow up in a world where there is no fear of being active. This partnership is an important step forward.”
VicHealth CEO, Jerril Rechter added: “Over the last few years there has been a shift in momentum, with more and more opportunities opening up for women and girls to take part in sport and physical activity,” she said.
“We want to see this campaign inspire women to smash old-fashioned stereotypes about what women can and can’t do in sport, in the gym and in their neighborhoods.
“We’ll be celebrating active Victorian women who are doing their thing no matter how they look, how well they do it, or how sweaty they get.”
The This Girl Can campaign from Sport England funded by The National Lottery featured real women exercising in mass advertising, telling the unedited story of women of all shapes, sizes, ages, and a range of diversities being active and playing sport.
