Gender Inequality in Grassroots Sports Cannot Be Ignored
3 min read

Gender Inequality in Grassroots Sports Cannot Be Ignored

Feb 10
/
3 min read

Sports Marketing Surveys recently released a report on how to keep women engaged in sport throughout their lives. Completion of their 5,000 participant survey indicated that women are less active than their male counterparts in grassroots sports; the question however, is how can we get them to participate in sports consistently? 

Taken from the UK CMO Physical Activity Guidance (2019), 13,913,500 women in England are not meeting the CMO recommended weekly levels of at least 150 minutes of physical activity a week, and with age, the weekly levels of physical activity continue to decrease with age.

SMS’s report contains insightful information, laying out trends illustrating women’s experiences with different sports changing in response to education and specific stages of life.

TeamSportz is on a mission to make professional sports training technology accessible to everyone and encourage physical activity. Below we highlight some of the top key findings from the SMS report and recommendations on how TeamSportz can help.


Motivations for women to participate in sport

The SMS report found several motivating factors that contribute to women’s participation in sport. There are tons of intrinsic reasons including: to improve wellbeing, enjoyment of the sport, and to meet new people. These reasons solidify the chances of a woman continuously participating in sports compared to those who take part for extrinsic reasons (i.e. to win or compete). 

Enjoyment was the top motivator according to the report, with 90% of women claiming it to be the reason for their continuation in sport. 

The surveyed women also stated that participation in sports has bettered their well-being, on a personal and professional level. We see this idea of “sport is life” in many grassroots teams, where skills and abilities practised on the field or court are translated into an individual’s personal life. 

Sport plays an invaluable role in helping women with internal struggles by bettering their mental health and thereby, giving them the ability to navigate through their issues with more ease. 

The report also states that “over three quarters of women considered themselves to be part of their sport’s family, a feeling strongly held amongst both regular and occasional female sports participants (80% and 68% respectively)”. There’s a common trend here of women holding value in being part of a community, supported while enjoying their sport and meeting new people.

For the vast majority of SMS’s overall research, the life changing benefits women have experienced from sports were gained within their community or club sports setting. This is a clear call to action for governing bodies, grassroots sports clubs and other local sport organisations to grow and improve their female teams.


Barriers preventing women to participate in sport

The report also revealed the most common barriers hindering women participation. Lack of confidence was referenced a lot. Regardless of age or stage of life, the SMS report indicates  that most women were affected, to some degree, by lack of self confidence throughout their sporting journey. The term ‘confidence gremlins’ came up a couple times. 

“Confidence gremlins are beliefs that hold an individual back from doing something or doing their best. These assumptions live in our minds, often getting stuck in a negative cycle and making it difficult to do anything to prevent them impacting our actions.” An interesting trend with confidence gremlins is that the nature of them changes with age from body self-consciousness in adolescence, to fear of not being fit enough in adulthood. 

Upon looking at other barriers, the report reveals a quarter of women cited maternity as the main reason why they took a break from their sport and 13% cited it as the reason why they stopped. Finally, lack of time was the main reason why women stopped participating in their main sport (37%).


How to support women in sport

To consider the idea that women are most motivated by internal rewards, we must collectively help identify these intrinsic motivations for sport and create a foundation for women that will enable them to continue on with their sporting journey.

Highlighted recommendations for women’s grassroots sport organisations stated by SMS include: creating a compassionate environment, not compromising on quality, recognising the lifetime value of a participant, and sport is for people like them.


How TeamSportz is promoting participation for women in sport

TeamSportz is a tool for teams to take advantage of in order to improve performance, considering you can use TeamSportz virtually anywhere, putting time on your side and therefore allowing you to be able to exercise, train, and improve at your convenience (during your lunch break if you’re working from home for example). 

In addition to this, lack of body confidence is a response to fear of what others think. Women can gain more confidence by training on their own and in their own space without the stress of others watching or judging their performance, whilst simultaneously getting live feedback on their form when exercising on the TeamSportz app. 

A lot has to be done when it comes to levelling the playing field for women in sport and increasing their levels of participation. Everyone must continue to intentionally strive for improvement in this area so we can get to a place of gender equality in grassroots sport, hopefully creating a chain reaction into the professional leagues.


Gender Inequality in Grassroots Sports Cannot Be Ignored
3 min read

Gender Inequality in Grassroots Sports Cannot Be Ignored

Feb 10
/
3 min read

Sports Marketing Surveys recently released a report on how to keep women engaged in sport throughout their lives. Completion of their 5,000 participant survey indicated that women are less active than their male counterparts in grassroots sports; the question however, is how can we get them to participate in sports consistently? 

Taken from the UK CMO Physical Activity Guidance (2019), 13,913,500 women in England are not meeting the CMO recommended weekly levels of at least 150 minutes of physical activity a week, and with age, the weekly levels of physical activity continue to decrease with age.

SMS’s report contains insightful information, laying out trends illustrating women’s experiences with different sports changing in response to education and specific stages of life.

TeamSportz is on a mission to make professional sports training technology accessible to everyone and encourage physical activity. Below we highlight some of the top key findings from the SMS report and recommendations on how TeamSportz can help.


Motivations for women to participate in sport

The SMS report found several motivating factors that contribute to women’s participation in sport. There are tons of intrinsic reasons including: to improve wellbeing, enjoyment of the sport, and to meet new people. These reasons solidify the chances of a woman continuously participating in sports compared to those who take part for extrinsic reasons (i.e. to win or compete). 

Enjoyment was the top motivator according to the report, with 90% of women claiming it to be the reason for their continuation in sport. 

The surveyed women also stated that participation in sports has bettered their well-being, on a personal and professional level. We see this idea of “sport is life” in many grassroots teams, where skills and abilities practised on the field or court are translated into an individual’s personal life. 

Sport plays an invaluable role in helping women with internal struggles by bettering their mental health and thereby, giving them the ability to navigate through their issues with more ease. 

The report also states that “over three quarters of women considered themselves to be part of their sport’s family, a feeling strongly held amongst both regular and occasional female sports participants (80% and 68% respectively)”. There’s a common trend here of women holding value in being part of a community, supported while enjoying their sport and meeting new people.

For the vast majority of SMS’s overall research, the life changing benefits women have experienced from sports were gained within their community or club sports setting. This is a clear call to action for governing bodies, grassroots sports clubs and other local sport organisations to grow and improve their female teams.


Barriers preventing women to participate in sport

The report also revealed the most common barriers hindering women participation. Lack of confidence was referenced a lot. Regardless of age or stage of life, the SMS report indicates  that most women were affected, to some degree, by lack of self confidence throughout their sporting journey. The term ‘confidence gremlins’ came up a couple times. 

“Confidence gremlins are beliefs that hold an individual back from doing something or doing their best. These assumptions live in our minds, often getting stuck in a negative cycle and making it difficult to do anything to prevent them impacting our actions.” An interesting trend with confidence gremlins is that the nature of them changes with age from body self-consciousness in adolescence, to fear of not being fit enough in adulthood. 

Upon looking at other barriers, the report reveals a quarter of women cited maternity as the main reason why they took a break from their sport and 13% cited it as the reason why they stopped. Finally, lack of time was the main reason why women stopped participating in their main sport (37%).


How to support women in sport

To consider the idea that women are most motivated by internal rewards, we must collectively help identify these intrinsic motivations for sport and create a foundation for women that will enable them to continue on with their sporting journey.

Highlighted recommendations for women’s grassroots sport organisations stated by SMS include: creating a compassionate environment, not compromising on quality, recognising the lifetime value of a participant, and sport is for people like them.


How TeamSportz is promoting participation for women in sport

TeamSportz is a tool for teams to take advantage of in order to improve performance, considering you can use TeamSportz virtually anywhere, putting time on your side and therefore allowing you to be able to exercise, train, and improve at your convenience (during your lunch break if you’re working from home for example). 

In addition to this, lack of body confidence is a response to fear of what others think. Women can gain more confidence by training on their own and in their own space without the stress of others watching or judging their performance, whilst simultaneously getting live feedback on their form when exercising on the TeamSportz app. 

A lot has to be done when it comes to levelling the playing field for women in sport and increasing their levels of participation. Everyone must continue to intentionally strive for improvement in this area so we can get to a place of gender equality in grassroots sport, hopefully creating a chain reaction into the professional leagues.


Francisco Baptista
Architect

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