Wsff Concern At Women’s Sport Figures

The Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSFF) has stated its concern by the fall in women’s participation in sport as detailed in research released by Sport England.

According to the study, participation amongst women has fallen by 61,000 to 2.7m, while the number of men taking part has increased.

Sue Tibballs, chief executive of WSFF commented: ‘These figures showing that women’s participation in sport is falling, and the gender gap growing, are very worrying.

‘Our focus continues to be on reversing the trend. At over 50% of the population and largely an untapped market, we believe women offer the biggest space for sport to grow – and in the run up to London 2012, there’s never been a better time to seize that opportunity.

‘However, to make this happen, sport needs to become much better at understanding the barriers preventing women from taking part and then developing an offer which suits their individual needs.”

Despite the overall fall in participation amongst women, there are some definite green shoots:

In athletics, women are driving growth of the sport with 694,600 women now take part once a week, a rise from 612,000 from last year.

Also, following an increase of 14,200 in the last 12 months, 130,900 women now play netball once a week.

As part of its on-going work and supported by Sport England, WSFF will look at the reasons behind these success stories and share the learnings amongst national governing bodies.

WSFF welcomed Sport England’s Active Women fund which was announced last month.

The £10 million National Lottery funding round is designed to get more women from disadvantaged communities and women caring for children, playing sport.

Sport England is calling on a wide range of community groups and sectors to make applications, including those who have not previously considered applying for funding.

Tibballs continues: ‘As well as focusing on how sport is delivered we also need to look at wider factors which impact on the state of play for women’s sport and influence grassroots participation.

‘Two of the specific areas we’re trying to tackle through the Commission on the Women’s Sport is increasing the investment and media profile – without the profile, the money won’t come in. And without the role models, women won’t feel inspired to take part.’