This Girl Can Sports Campaign

Author: EFDS - English Federation of Disability Sport
Published: 12th Jan 2015 - Updated: 14th Sep 2017
Peer-Reviewed Publication: N/A
Additional References: LGBT Sports Publications

Summary: English Federation of Disability Sport calling disabled women to get involved in This Girl Can, a celebration of women everywhere.

Main Document

This Girl Can is a sassy celebration of women everywhere no matter how they do it, how they look, or how sweaty they get. Sport England, the campaign creators, and the English Federation of Disability Sport are calling disabled women to get involved.

This Girl Can (and the hashtag #thisgirlcan on Twitter) is the name of a campaign set up by Sport England, the government agency for grassroots sport, to boost the number of women doing exercise.

Sport England looked into various pieces of research by universities and other sports foundations. They found that 2 million fewer women are regularly participating in sport or exercise than men, despite 75 per cent of women aged 14 to 40 saying they'd like to do more.

There are approximately 9.4 million disabled people in England, accounting for 18 per cent of the population.

Just under half (45 per cent) are males and slightly more than half (55 per cent) are females (Census 2011). Therefore- it is a large proportion of our population to encourage and involve in this campaign.

Sport England's Active People Survey (APS) show a gender gap in disabled men and men who do at least 30 minutes of sport at least once a week, even if the gap is smaller than the one between non-disabled men and non-disabled women.

After a lot of research with focus groups and having talked to many ordinary women on the street, Sport England identified that it is fear of judgment that prevents many women from doing exercise.

Sport England discovered that 75% of 14-40 year old women in England want to exercise more, but the fear of judgement was stopping them. This backs findings in EFDS's 2012 participation research that showed psychological barriers were the biggest barrier for disabled people.

This Girl Can will tackle these fears and a host of other issues to empower more women to give sport a go.

On the 12 January the first TV advert for the campaign will be aired, with accompanying cinema advertising, outdoor media, media partnerships and social media all being used to spread the word that This Girl Can.

All women are involved in the campaign, so disabled women, those living with health conditions and impairments, are encouraged to use the hashtag to show how they get active.

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Latest LGBT Sports Publications
The above information is from our reference library of resources relating to LGBT Sports that includes:
	Sport for All Genders and Sexualities European Union (EU) Project Sport for all Genders and Sexualities (SGS) presents the research on women and LGBTQ+ individuals in European grassroots sports. Publish Date: 23rd Nov 2023 - Updated: 14th Dec 2023
	Kids Quitting Sports Due to Body Image, Social Media and Gender Biases The reasons participants gave for abandoning sports were coaching issues, poor body image comparison from social media and the competitive pressure of the sport. Publish Date: 21st Oct 2023 - Updated: 16th Dec 2023
	U.S. DOJ Files Statement of Interest Defending Constitutionality of Idaho's Fairness in Women's Sports Act Under the Constitution, the Equal Protection Clause allows Idaho to recognize the physiological differences between the biological sexes in athletics. Publish Date: 19th Jun 2020 - Updated: 2nd Aug 2020
	Working Group on Gender Equity in Sport - Minister Kirsty Duncan Canadian Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities Working Group on Gender Equity in Sport are leaders, innovators and influencers who are ready to advance the sport system in Canada. Publish Date: 25th Apr 2018