Taxonomy term

The week our latest Active Lives survey results come out is always one I look forward to, because it’s a chance to step back, look at the data and really understand what’s happening with volunteering in our sector.

With Volunteers’ Week here, I wanted to share a few reflections on the latest adults release – what it tells us about the state of volunteering right now and what it might mean for those of us working across sport and physical activity.

Volunteering levels are recovering – but not fully

The headline figure is encouraging: 10.9 million adults in England gave their time to support sport and physical activity in the 12 months between November 2024 and 2025. That’s an increase of nearly 400,000 compared to the previous year.

This recovery matters, because volunteers are the backbone of our sector and they create opportunities for people to be active in communities that boost wellbeing.

Volunteering in sport and physical activity also generates an estimated £8.6 billion in social value annually, and much of this worth comes from the wellbeing benefits individuals gain through volunteering.  

But we shouldn’t get carried away, because whilst we’re seeing recovery since the pandemic, we’re still not back to pre-Covid levels.  

Volunteering was already in decline before the pandemic and so even though numbers are improving, many clubs and organisations won’t necessarily feel that recovery on the ground.

What does this mean for the volunteer experience?

Fewer volunteers can mean more pressure on existing volunteers, and we hear consistently from partners and volunteers that workloads remain high.

Sport volunteers are incredibly committed – they step up, take on extra responsibilities and keep things running.

But this resilience can mask an ongoing risk of burnout, which became apparent during and after the pandemic and hasn’t yet gone away. If anything, it’s become part of their day-to-day reality.

That’s why it’s critical to focus not just on bringing new people into volunteering, but on improving the experience for those already involved.

Inequalities remain stubborn

The data also reinforces something we’ve known for a long time: volunteering is not accessible to everyone.

People from lower socio-economic backgrounds, disabled adults and those with long-term health conditions remain underrepresented.

This mirrors patterns we see in participation more broadly and won’t change without deliberate action.

But if we’re serious about improving the diversity of our volunteer base then designing volunteer opportunities around lived experience, making them more flexible, inclusive and relevant is essential.  

A widening gender gap

One of the most striking trends this year is that men are driving the recent increases in volunteering.

Men now make up 62% of weekly volunteers – compared to 37% who are women – and the gap appears to be widening.

This raises an important question: are we genuinely reaching new audiences or are we relying on the same groups to do more?

This isn’t to take away from the positive recovery we’re seeing, but it does highlight that more needs to be done to ensure our volunteers are representative of the population.

What’s not working for women?

The gender imbalance is even more concerning alongside the wider context of women’s experiences in sport.

Women in Sport's research highlights issues such as misogyny and women feeling that their voices aren’t heard in coaching roles, and that practical factors like how voluntary roles are structured and whether they fit around people’s lives play a significant part in how accessible roles are to women.

Life stage matters too, as highlighted by our Life Cycles research, and Active Lives shows that while having children increases the likelihood of volunteering in sport overall, the effect is stronger for men.

This is because men with children are more likely to take on coaching or officiating roles while for women, caring responsibilities can be both an enabler and a barrier, particularly in leadership positions like refereeing and coaching.

So, what works?

To bring more women and other underrepresented groups into volunteering – and to deliver positive experiences  – we need to take a more intentional approach and be open to challenging the status quo.

This is a multi-layered challenge – it requires systemic and cultural change, tackling discrimination head-on and rethinking how roles are designed.

Flexibility, family-friendly approaches and clear pathways into leadership roles all make a difference and I can't recommend enough the wide breath of volunteering resources by Buddle, which provide support at every stage of the journey for sport and physical organisations – from help finding volunteers, to defining roles, ensuring wellbeing or building progression paths.

We must also remember that visibility matters – when people see relatable role models and examples of positive experiences, it helps them shift perceptions of who volunteering is for.

For instance, Black Girls Ruck demonstrate the power of community building and how, when done in an authentic way, it can challenge perceptions, give visibility and empower women currently underrepresented in a sport.

Women-led and targeted programmes, like those highlighted in the This Girl Can volunteering guide, show what’s possible when opportunities are designed with women in mind.

Where to next?

Volunteering is recovering, but we can’t rely on this recovery alone to solve the underlying challenges.

For a more sustainable and inclusive volunteer workforce, we need to focus on experience as much as numbers – supporting existing volunteers, reaching those currently underrepresented and creating environments where everyone can thrive.

And whilst acknowledging the scale of the challenge, we also want to take this moment in Volunteers’ Week to recognise and thank the millions of people who give up their time to help others.

Their contribution makes a huge difference to people and communities across the country, and we want to make that experience better for everyone.

International Women’s Day is a date that, contextually, makes me reflect on how far women’s sport has come.

From being excluded entirely to selling out stadiums and becoming Euro champions, women and girls have had to overcome barrier after barrier in the UK (and beyond).

There is so much to celebrate in that progress, yet we’re still a long way from a world where sport is genuinely accessible and inclusive for everyone, regardless of identity.

Recognising this inequality is what shifted the direction of my own life and it continues to be the driving force behind my commitment to creating change for others. 

'Give to Gain'

This year’s theme, 'Give to Gain', really resonates with me because it reflects much of my own experience.

A lot of my journey has involved giving time, energy and care to support women, girls, trans and non-binary people, often alongside my main role, without always knowing what that would lead to.

What I’ve gained in return has been confidence, perspective and a much clearer sense of why this work matters. 

Through my role as activities and opportunities officer at Leeds University Union, I’ve been involved in work linked to the Women’s+ Sports Participation Project.

This is a great initiative that focuses on understanding why women and marginalised genders engage, or don’t engage, in sport and what needs to change to support them better.

Giving time to this work has reinforced how important it is to listen properly in order to create welcoming environments and challenge assumptions about who sport is for.

Seeing people feel more confident accessing sport and physical activity has been one of the most rewarding parts of what I do. 

Recently, I joined Sport England’s Co‑Design Group and took part in an introductory session.

While I’m still very new to the space, what stood out to me straight away was the emphasis on lived experience and learning from one another.

Women's leadership in our sector

Being in a room where people are encouraged to share honestly and where those experiences are treated as valuable, felt important.

At this stage, my role is very much about listening, learning and understanding how these spaces work, but even that feels meaningful.  

Alongside this, being part of Leading the Movement has helped me reflect on leadership and what it looks like for women in sport.

There are positive signs, for example, that more women are stepping into leadership positions and that progress deserves to be recognised.

But when you look more closely, the number of younger women in leadership roles is still relatively small and that gap matters because younger women bring different experiences, challenges and perspectives that aren’t always represented.  

This realisation has also made me think about how often society equates age with experience.

However, I’ve learned first‑hand that this isn’t true because passion can outweigh knowledge and when someone is genuinely committed to making change, they will learn with purpose.

So I want to challenge the assumption that leadership must come with age, because it overlooks the value, insight and drive that younger women bring.

The future of sport

That’s why I believe that creating space for that passion to be recognised is just as important as creating space for experience, which is what I feel Leading the Movement has really committed to. 

All of this reminds me that progress in women’s sport has never happened by accident.  

It has happened because people have been willing to give their time, their voice and their energy to push for something better.

All of this leads me to the conclussion that 'Give to Gain' isn’t just a theme, it's a necessity.

Because when we give space to people’s stories, we gain understanding. When we give opportunities to those who are overlooked, we gain stronger, more diverse leadership. And when we give our passion to a cause, we gain the possibility of real, lasting change. 

As we celebrate International Women’s Day, I feel hopeful about what comes next.

There is still a long way to go, but there is also a growing community of people of all ages, identities and experiences who are determined to reshape what sport can be.

I want to be part of that movement not just to open doors for others, but by challenging the assumptions that keep those doors closed in the first place.

If we continue to listen, to learn and to lead with purpose, then the future of sport will not only be more equal, but also more representative of everyone it’s meant to serve. 

Movement has always been more than exercise for me.

My first motivation was staying healthy and trying to stave off hereditary diseases like hypertension and diabetes that run in my family (and, so far, I'm happy to say it has worked!).

But movement quickly became my outlet, my reminder that I am alive, capable and able to set goals.

The power of movement

When I lace up my trainers and step outside, I am not only moving my body. I am moving through history, community and identity, and I am claiming me. I do this for me.

This year the theme for Black History Month is ‘Standing Firm in Power and Pride’, highlighting the resilience and contributions of the Black community, and I am reminded that movement has long been a form of resistance, survival and celebration for Black people.

From dance to sport, movement has always been our way of claiming space, telling stories and showing strength and, for me, running is my chosen form of movement. It gives me freedom, resilience, and connection – three qualities that shape how I live and lead.

Growing up, I saw elite athletes who looked like me on TV, but I did not see everyday women like me running.

Running was not something I thought belonged to me as an adult (child me, yes, because children always run), but the first time I tried it outside as an adult, something shifted – it was not about speed or medals, it was about finding a rhythm that was mine.

Over the years, running has carried me through joy and pain.

It has helped me navigate life’s challenges, from grief and motherhood to menopause and leadership, and it has also changed how I see myself, not as the fastest or the best, but as someone who shows up, puts one foot in front of the other and keeps going.

Running has also shown me how much representation matters.

There have been times I felt invisible at races or out of place in running communities, but when I began sharing my story and weaving my Jamaican heritage into my running, I discovered others felt the same – and that, by stepping forward, I could help them feel seen.

Showing the real deal

That is why I am proud to be part of the advisory board for This Girl Can.

For the Phase Six of the campaign, we have focused on showing women as they truly are: sweaty, busy, imperfect and joyful.

Not polished versions of women exercising effortlessly, but showing real women making time for movement in the midst of their busy lives.

Being on the advisory board has given me the chance to share my perspective, especially around the barriers that Black women face in sport.

From worries about hair care, to feeling unsafe in certain spaces, to simply not seeing ourselves represented, these are real issues that stop many of us from moving freely.

Phase Six is about breaking those barriers down and telling a wider story of who belongs in movement.

This new stage of the campaign is also about making sure that when women see the campaign, they see someone who looks like them, lives like them and feels like them. Because when you can see yourself, you start to believe you belong.

From local to national

In 2019, I founded Black Girls Do Run UK.

What began as a small idea, creating space for a handful of Black women to run together, has grown into a nationwide community, because we are more than a running group. We are a family!

We celebrate milestones, we share struggles and, more than anything, we create spaces where Black women can move without judgement or stereotype.

Alongside leading the community, I hold both the Leadership in Running Fitness and Coaching in Running Fitness qualifications.

These have allowed me to support runners of all abilities, from beginners to those chasing big milestones, and to bring structured, safe and inclusive coaching into our spaces.

For us, running is not about chasing times, and all about creating a memory bank, not metrics.

It is about laughing mid-race, stopping for photos and supporting each other at the back of the pack. It is about belonging.

Together in strength

Black Girls Do Run UK exists because representation matters.

Too often, Black women are absent from the imagery of running, but by showing up in our kit at races and online, we are rewriting that narrative. We are saying we are here, we run and we belong!

For me, movement is freedom. It is the freedom to be myself, to take up space and to live well in my body and during Black History Month, that freedom feels especially powerful.

We honour the struggles of those before us, celebrate the present and move with hope for those who will come after because movement connects past, present and future.

It reminds us that while the barriers are real, so is our resilience, and it proves that when women move, communities move and change becomes possible.

So this Black History Month, I celebrate movement in all its forms: the steps, the strides, the miles and the memories. Movement has shaped me, and I will keep moving, for myself, for my community, and for the generations yet to come.

Volunteering levels have been falling over the long-term and this was accelerated by the pandemic, plus we are yet to see volunteering return to pre-pandemic (November 2018-19) levels, as there are still 1.7m (4.8%) fewer volunteers compared to seven years ago (November 2016-17).

This decline is not unique to the sport and physical activity sector.

The Community Life Survey, which measures volunteering across sectors is also reporting that levels of formal volunteering have been in decline, suggesting that there are wider social and economic factors at play.

Our recent State of the Nation report points to some of the wider changes we’ve seen that provide interesting context for the data.  

There has also been little change in who volunteers.

Women, people with disabilities or a long-term health condition and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds continue to be underrepresented in volunteering, plus those with two or more characteristics of inequality are least likely to volunteer.

The data shows that, in many ways, volunteering mirrors the stubborn inequalities that we see in sport and physical activity participation.

As a result, community sports clubs and community groups continue to miss out on the valuable skills and experiences a more diverse volunteer base could bring.

It also means that the volunteers who help deliver sport and physical activity are not always representative of the communities they serve, which can pose challenges in staying relevant to the changing needs of diverse participants and communities.

Changing this is fundamental to creating a more inclusive and welcoming environment for everyone.  

Making a difference

A good starting point, and our focus in Uniting the Movement, is to focus on the volunteer experience; on changing culture and practices to enhance it, and on making it more inclusive and welcoming.

We recently commissioned Leeds Beckett University to complete an evidence and scoping review to understand the existing evidence and insights out there on the volunteer experience in sport and physical activity.

We’ll publish more details from this work as soon as we can, but it felt relevant here to share a snapshot of what the existing evidence tells us works to enhance the experience of volunteers, particularly those from underrepresented groups. These include:

• supporting the development of feelings of connection to the purpose, values, work or people of the organisation
• ensuring roles align with the individuals’ motivations to volunteer and that these roles are suited to their skills and experience
• making sure volunteers feel able to manage role demands with their available personal resources and know where and how to access support
• establishing an organisational culture that is welcoming, caring, safe and inclusive
• creating environments volunteers feel seen, heard, known and valued throughout all stages of their volunteer journey
• ensuring that organisations critically reflect on volunteer management, policies and practices
• developing person-centred approaches that underpin the recruitment, development and retention of volunteers
• providing a volunteer offer that is diversified and that's made easier through flexible, accessible and appealing roles
• designing non-linear pathways to support the development and retention of volunteers and to address any skills gaps.

What about the future?

Imagine it’s 2035 and these principles and approaches have been embedded across sport and physical activity volunteering.

What changes would we see in the data about who volunteers?

Would there be an increase in volunteering with more people encouraged to give their time to support others to get active?

What we want is to see a future where volunteering in sport is uncomplicated, meaningful, well supported and easily integrated into people’s life.

And for this to be possible we need an inclusive, accessible, people-centric culture where volunteering is accessible and relevant to everyone.

We hope that, in the future, the volunteer workforce will reflect the diversity of the communities they serve, and that the experience of participants is richer and more positive within this inclusive environment.

I’m really looking forward to discussing and reflecting on these findings with our partners to understand how we might create these conditions in more of the clubs, groups and organisations to improve the experience of volunteers across the country.

In the meantime, I hope that this provides some inspiration for even small changes to help improve the experience of volunteers right now.

This funding, while a small proportion of The FA’s overall turnover, drives initiatives aimed at tackling inequalities and increasing participation among under-represented groups.

What we've learnt from football 

There are different learnings we’ve achieved from these initiatives that are also contributing to Sport England's long-term strategy – Uniting the Movement. 

Efforts should be made to keep girls in the sport 

Recognising the common challenge of drop-off in girls’ sports participation during teenage years, The FA developed ‘Squad’– a programme that’s designed to be a fun, non-competitive initiative for girls aged 12-14.

This model, which could be replicated across other sports, prioritises enjoyment and social connection, and aims to retain girls in football while building their confidence and leadership skills.

In addition, they have developed a new talent ID programme called Discover My Talent, shifting the way they find and support talented footballers.

The FA’s learnings from this programme highlight that moving away from a traditional approach, focused on existing clubs and academies, enables them to identify potential "anywhere, anytime."

This approach aims to identify talented players across the country, within diverse groups and at any kind of football events and sessions to broadening opportunities across different communities, resulting in more diverse talent pathways for women and girls.

The FA reports that they are seeing positive results, with increased diversity in the top talent programmes.

Increasing opportunities for disabled players 

The FA is committed to growing para- and disability football and to closing the disability gap, partly through initiatives like ‘Comets’ – a recreational program for disabled children aged 5-11 that provides fun and accessible entry opportunities to the sport.

While aiming to expand Comets and the provision of disability football, The FA acknowledges challenges such as workforce training, confidence levels of local coaches to support disabled people and logistical barriers to attending sessions – like the time and financial costs of travel – for para-athletes.

In response, The FA are providing disability training and toolkits for clubs, called Journey to Inclusion, with the aim of proactively addressing these challenges.

The FA have identified potential for cross-sector collaboration and knowledge sharing with other system partners to continue to address these difficulties, as well as using football as a hook to engage disabled people and connect them with other sports.

Investing in the workforce to reflect the communities served

As many system partners have told us, local champions have an important role for creating local change.

Recognising the need for a diverse workforce to help diversify participation, The FA is actively working to increase the number of Black and Asian coaches in grassroots football.

And by targeting specific localities and offering more coaching opportunities, The FA aims to create a coaching landscape that reflects the communities it serves.

The role of local partnerships for building a stronger ecosystem

The FA is increasingly working locally, tailoring programmes to the unique needs of different communities.

Their experience is that partnerships with community groups and schools are key to reaching under-represented groups.

Ensuring safeguarding standards when partnering with non-accredited organisations is recognised as a challenge, so they are actively supporting community organisations in developing their safeguarding processes through training and qualifications.

Looking at what's to come

The new Learning Synthesis report based on the year two evaluation report will be published soon with more insights from the ongoing evaluation.

It will also include the collective contributions that partners are making to changing the sport and physical activity system.

We hope this series of blogs have been useful and if you have any comments or questions, we'd love to hear from you, so please get in touch.

The rise of women’s football is one of the true success stories in women’s sport in recent years.

Arsenal generating crowds of 60,000 at the Emirates Stadium, fans lining the side of the pitch desperate to get a glimpse of their heroes and big brands signing up the likes of Leah Williamson and Lucy Bronze for major campaigns are no longer cases of exception in the sport. They are becoming the norm.

Accepting that even with its current success there is still a long way to go in women’s football, those of us working in other sports still have a lot to thank it for.

Normalising the regular discussion and debate of women in sport benefits everyone and in motorsport we are also reaping some of these.

Putting women behind the winning wheel

A year ago, when I took on the role of CEO at More than Equal – an independent non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting talented female drivers and finding the first female Formula 1 world champion –  there were murmurings about the lack of women competing at all levels in motorsport, but those murmurings have now become a consistent debate and discussion.

Driven on by the progress of women in a range of other sports, a realisation is dawning in motorsport that as one of the world’s leading and only truly mixed-gender sports - ours is one of the few sports in which men and women can compete together - the lack of women on its grid is closing-off a world of opportunities to it.

But when the F1 Academy – a new all-female racing series – announced a partnership with global beauty brand Charlotte Tilbury last month, you could almost hear some pennies dropping about how motorsport could start to benefit commercially from having women competing at its higher levels.

Plus, motorsport has a growing female base.

F1 itself says that around 40% of its fans are women and girls, but when we asked that fanbase last year in a major piece of research what they thought about the sport’s efforts to support female drivers, we learned that they were largely dissatisfied.

So there’s now a greater motivation than ever to help grow this sport so that women and girls can play a fuller part.

At More than Equal we are focusing on supporting young female drivers early on in their careers.

This is because our early research told us that the major barriers blocking the progress of women and girls in the sport remained as they started to climb the ranks.

But thanks to the work I was able to do on the amazing This Girl Can campaign while I was with Sport England, I realised when I took this job that we had to build a true understanding of the barriers facing female drivers, just as This Girl Can worked hard to understand what was behind lower activity levels for women and girls – the ‘gender activity gap’.

Planning the change

Our research showed us that while motorsport is a tough sport for anyone to progress in – not least because it is terrifically expensive – women and girls faced a range of additional challenges from their male counterparts.

Those barriers include the tiny pool of female participants and lack of support early in the career of female drivers, therefore our focus became to help remove some of these.

We’re offering a driver development programme for some of the world’s highest potential female drivers, a programme that is not only relevant to their age but that is truly build with their gender in mind.

This is something that is not on offer in motorsport currently for young female drivers and we’re working with a range of partners to deliver it, with a goal of helping those drivers progress up the ladder towards Formula 1 – where we have not seen a woman compete for almost 50 years!

That lack of representation in the world’s largest mixed-gender sport is not good enough. There's also a lack of women racing in other major motorsport series like Formula E, Indycar, Nascar and, as I write this, there’s only one female driver in Formula 3.

So while we watch the ongoing progress of women’s football in this country, we too are driving our progress and that's thanks, in part, to the path they are laying before us.

The Games are not only here to host a sporting tournament that brings the community from all over the UK together over a weekend, but to create a model that encourages community collaboration and sports involvement at a local level too. 

So, for the UK's first Sikh Games the competition sports are football, cricket, hockey, kabaddi, track, and powerlifting.

Some of the demonstration and interactive sports you'll get to see and experience are six para sports (football, cricket, hockey, kabaddi, athletics and powerlifting), plus gathka, netball, boxing, squash, judo, wrestling, MMA, e-sports, cue sports and yoga.

The competition will be a wonderful opportunity to not only showcase sporting excellence, but for the community to try out and hear talks by a variety of sport professionals.

We are most empowered when everyone is empowered 

Our mission is to bring people together and create a space where everyone feels welcome.

Within the community, for years the only dialogue about disability has been whether a wheelchair is allowed in a prayer hall, and if it is, where will it be situated?

But when have we ever stopped to think about what our responsibility is towards those with disabilities to make people feel included and to empower them to better their lifestyle through sport and community? When we don't intentionally include, we unintentionally exclude.

If we put everyone in a setting that is accessible, we will provide them with an environment that will allow them to thrive.

At The Sikh Games UK, the first sports you will come across are the para sports, there will be at least six different paralympic sports to experience and learn about during the three days of the Games.

We remain committed to increasing representation at all levels, which is a reflection of the Sikh Games' values.

So let's talk women.

We currently have female representation within all parts of the UK's Sikh Games - on the board, advisory board, ambassadors, sports leads, and regional leads.

The idea is to encourage women and young girls to feel like they have a part to play in the Games. And from their side, women have a responsibility to take part and compete - to showcase to the next generation all the opportunities that are available to them!

As we first build trust, then accountability, we won’t rest until we build those bridges into the disengaged communities and it is until then that we start taking steps into creating playing fields that are reflective of the multi-cultural society that we live in. 

We look forward to welcoming you to the first edition of The Sikh Games UK!

That’s why in 2020 Sport England committed £1 million worth of investment into legacy groups to help develop and create recreational women’s football opportunities in each of the nine host cities up and down England.

The FA hopes to see 120,000 more girls playing football in schools on the back of the tournament, and that’s one of the reasons they’re a strategic partner of Sport England in helping us tackle long-standing inequalities and the gender activity gap.

Because that’s what Uniting the Movement, our long-term strategy, is ultimately about: a collective movement of people and organisations coming together to tackle inequalities, level-up access and use sport and physical activity to help create more resilient, inclusive and connected communities.

So we’re proud that the £5.75 million investments we made into the FA between 2017 and 2022, have helped deliver the programmes for talented young athletes, including several of the women’s first team.

We’re also delighted to be announcing a brand-new partnership with the FA to help more teenagers engage with the beautiful game.

Be it young girls playing at a grassroots level, to the wider coverage of the elite domestic game, the women’s game has come on leaps and bounds.

The last time England hosted the Women’s Euros in 2005, all games were played solely in the North-West, with the showpiece final in Preston’s Deepdale played in front of just over 950 fans.

While it’s important to look forward, a reminder of where the game has come from enables us to see and celebrate the progress made.

Here’s to a great tournament and many across the nation being inspired.

We hope everyone can get behind the Lionesses throughout the summer and beyond and we’ll play our part to ensure that women and girls that want to give it a go, have an attractive opportunity on their doorstep.

What this research tells us is that women are being denied their right to participate fully in public life – which is undoubtedly contributing to the gender gap in activity.

As a man I find this shameful and am fully committed to doing what I can to help us all deal with it head on.

We want to examine the root causes of women’s safety fears and aim to challenge and change the culture that causes women to feel intimidated.

Our goal is for all women feel safe in any space they’re getting active in – be that going out for a run in their local park, a city walk, using their local pool or leisure centre.

We’re working with our partners to create environments that both are safe and supportive for women.

For example, later this year we’ll be publishing updated leisure facilities guidance that help providers – e.g. gyms and leisure centres – create environments that meet women’s needs. This will be in addition to the ‘As told by the 51%’ guidance This Girl Can, working with ukactive, published last year. Facilities that are accessible, welcoming and, above all, safe, are key to participation.

Alongside this work, celebration and fun remains the soul of This Girl Can.

The campaign has used joy to inspire women and girls to find the confidence to get active on their own terms. We’ve challenged conventional ideas of what women exercising look like and connected with women of all backgrounds, abilities and ethnicities.

And we continue to invest heavily in getting all women active – through amazing projects like This Girl Can classes, Studio You, and a fantastic partnership with parkrun for International Women's Day 2022.

Our strategy is all about making playing sport and getting active a normal part of life for all of us.  We know that being a woman can be feel like a barrier to getting active – but, equally, we know it shouldn’t be this way.

So far, This Girl Can has inspired nearly four million women to engage with exercise and moving in their own way – no matter how they look, or how well they do it.

#BreakTheBias is the theme of International Women’s Day 2022, and I can say with great pride that This Girl Can has been breaking the bias, tackling inequalities and shaking things up for more than seven years.

But until the gender gap in activity is gone, This Girl Can will keep challenging norms and championing women and girls’ activity in all its guises.

As This Girl Can Week draws to a close, I hope that you’ve been able to take some time to choose you. The week has been a celebration of movement - whatever that might look or feel like.

As we all know, in the wake of the pandemic, staying active and feeling strong is more important than ever. But our research found that women were struggling to get back to their activity habits, and to make the time to get active for themselves.

My ambition for The Game Changers podcast, which I launched in 2019, was to give a voice to the incredible female trailblazers, those ‘fearless women in sport’ who have knocked down barriers and challenged the status quo for women and girls everywhere.

I wanted to share the stories of these remarkable women and all they have had to overcome on their pathway to success. I hope their interviews will inspire other women (and men) in the future.

As I launch this fifth series of the podcast, it’s wonderful to reflect on the incredible guests I’ve had the privilege to interview. From Olympic, Paralympic and world champions, journalists and broadcasters through to coaches, agents and CEOs. All have openly shared the barriers they’ve faced and what they’ve learnt in the process.

Game changing guests from the previous series have included Katherine Grainger, Denise Lewis, Clare Balding, Casey Stoney, Kate Richardson-Walsh, Tanni Grey-Thompson, Chrissie Wellington and Sue Campbell.

Some of the key advice I’ve repeatedly heard from them includes the need to work hard and be (over) prepared as woman, how to overcome ‘imposter syndrome’ by being brave and always open to new opportunities, and the importance of surrounding yourself with a strong support team – which is not just something for athletes to consider.

It is fantastic that Sport England has agreed to support the next series of The Game Changers. It will enable me to share the learnings from these impressive women with a huge new audience.

The remarkable line-up includes:

• Eleanor Oldroyd – one of Britain’s most respected sports broadcasters
• Sarah Storey – the most successful female British Paralympian of all time
• Alison Oliver – chief executive of the Youth Sport Trust
• Ebony Rainford-Brent – Cricket World Cup winner and now much respected sports broadcaster
• Katie Sadleir – former Olympian, now general manager of women’s rugby at World Rugby
• Tracy Edwards – skipper of the first all-female crew in the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race
• Judy Murray – former international tennis player and coach to many champions including her sons Jamie and Andy
• Jessica Ennis-Hill – Olympic champion and three-times world champion heptathlete.

The Game Changers is available across all platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google and Stitcher, or you can listen here.

You can find out more about all 41 guests from this and previous series here. 

But there’s plenty to build on here.

People from Mixed, Asian and Black backgrounds were more likely to agree with the five COM-B statements about capability, opportunity and motivation that affect behaviour and were more likely to have been encouraged to exercise by the government guidance.

They’re also more likely to say they have found new ways to be active since the outbreak.

Looking across all of these less active groups, many of the current barriers and challenges aren’t new, but they’re now compounded by further ones specific to the situation.

For example, across the whole population we can see that people living alone, people without children in the household, and people without access to outdoor space, have all found it harder to be active.

Again, everyone is affected, but not everyone is affected equally.

The story goes on

So, what are the implications as we move forward?

It’s clear that while many have found ways to be active, many others have had yet more barriers put in their way.

What we learn now, about both sides of that equation, will give us crucial insight as we respond to and ultimately move out of the current crisis.

We’re also inviting you to find and tell your own stories with the data we’ve collected. We’ve launched a new interactive Power BI tool where you can explore and analyse the data yourself.

We’ll be adding new waves of data to this each week so please check it out, have a go, and share what you find with us at [email protected].

We’ve always described fear of judgement as the golden thread that runs throughout This Girl Can – connecting all our work and focusing it on helping women tackle the real or perceived judgements by others (or of themselves), telling them they shouldn’t or couldn’t be active. 

In January, it was more about a piece of string.

This Girl Can is now five years old and we celebrated our birthday with a new ad campaign – Me Again. It brought back some of the iconic women and images from the last five years and introduced new women who are getting on their own terms and for their own reasons. 

As always, we showed the undoctored reality of women getting active - red faces, jiggling bodies and sweat – but this time we added in the unfiltered reality of women’s lives too. Whether we’re going to work out at the gym, the court or just our living room – we’ve all had to deal with stuff along the way – short and long-term distractions, hurdles and reasons to put it all off for another day. 

Sports marketing and fitness content typically doesn’t show this – and we knew that if we were to encourage even more women to get active, we had to do better. 

So, along with the joy, attitude and kick-ass soundtrack (thank you Little Simz) followers of This Girl Can have come to expect, we’re telling deeper, more complex stories. Glynnis, for example, is rediscovering her childhood love of swimming and building up her confidence in the pool. While Farrah has found acceptance and belonging in the climbing community, something that, as a trans woman, has been vital for her mental health.

And it’s the everyday stuff too – motherhood, menopause and most memorably, menstruation. 

Which brings us back to the piece of string.

Periods are normal

It’s ridiculous that in 2020 the practicalities and embarrassment of something that half the world’s population goes through every month for most of their lives is still a huge taboo. Periods are normal and natural, and exercise can help alleviates the cramps and mood swings involved. Yet research shows that many women still avoid getting active during their period due to a sense of shame.

This taboo also contributes to society’s collective judgement of women – that we must behave and look a certain way. 

Showing a tampon string so matter-of-factly towards the end the ad is our response to this. Hannah – who uses yoga to alleviate bad period cramps - is getting on with her life without worrying about what other people think. Periods don’t have to stop play and it doesn’t have to be embarrassing if other people know you’re on. 

We knew it would get people talking and we wanted it to. It’s conversations that lead to change, not ads on their own. I don’t think we were prepared for how much there was. Delightfully, most of it has been overwhelmingly positive and a recognition that we were just showing the truth of women’s lives. The handful of complaints that were submitted to (and rejected by) the Advertising Standards Association, underline why felt we needed to include it. Judgement clearly still exists. 

This Girl Can is however about more than string. We’re working hard with our partners and supporters to normalise activity for all women of all backgrounds, abilities, shapes and sizes.

We’ve got lots planned this year and we’d love more organisations and individuals to get involved. If you haven’t already signed up as a supporter you can do so here and check out our latest insights, images and other materials. Don’t forget to tell us what you’re doing and keep using the #ThisGirlCan hashtag.

Diversity in sport is one of the greatest shared challenges we face. Progress has been made, particularly in closing the gender gap for participation. But there is much more still to do.

Up and down the country, sport and physical activity remains skewed towards the white, the better off, and the non-disabled.

At clubs, white non-disabled men dominate coaching. In the workforce, people from ethnic backgrounds are under-represented.

In volunteering men outnumber women by a wide margin. And you’re much more likely to be inactive if you’re from a lower socioeconomic group.

Tackling these inequalities is at the heart of our Towards an Active Nation strategy for 2017-21.

But it’s not just about the participants and volunteers on the ground. Every part of the sporting landscape needs to change. And that includes us, our partners, our staff and those we invest in.

As the then prime minister said in his introduction to the Government’s strategy document Sporting Future, sport is good for us.

The benefits of being physically active – for the individual and society – are well proven. We should aspire to ensure that those benefits are being enjoyed by every sector of our society.

I was appalled to see the latest statistics showing that, out of 650 Board members across the sector, just six are from black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds. That’s worse than any other industry that I know.

But it’s not just at leadership level. We must foster diversity across the sector.

I’m making a personal commitment to ensure we make progress – especially where the most stubborn gaps exist. Not only is it the right thing to do, it also makes great business sense.

Organisations that attract and retain a diverse workforce make better decisions and are more likely to achieve their business goals.

In a perfect world, we wouldn’t need to push for equality. But our insight shows that we live in a world where barriers – both perceived and real – prevent people from all backgrounds joining the industry.

What we’re doing

Progress is being made, and I’m happy that Sport England is leading the ambition to make the sector more representative.

We’ve already achieved several milestones as we move towards equality. In October 2017, we were awarded Investors in Diversity accreditation for the second time and in 2019 for the first time Leaders in Diversity.

The Award places Sport England as one of the better institutions in the country for encouraging an all-encompassing culture of equality, diversity and inclusion.

This is based on a staff survey which asks questions about employees’ daily experiences and measures their grasp of equality issues, such as protected characteristics.

We’re also a Disability Confident Employer – with measures in place to recruit and retain disabled people or those with long term health conditions.

As for our own staff statistics, there are areas where we’re doing well and – of course – those we need to improve. On the positive side, 7% of employees report as LGBT+, which mirrors the national population average of 5-7%.

Furthermore, men and women are largely represented equally overall. However, there is further work to do to attract and retain those from black, Asian and minority ethnic and disability backgrounds.

We’re also nurturing close relationships with organisations that have an emphatic grasp of the groups they represent. 

The list doesn’t stop there – and you can look inside the Code for Sports Governance and our own action plan to see a full list of the actions we’re taking to further equality in the workplace. For example, we have five women on our 10-strong board – exceeding the 30% gender target by 6%. At present we have an equal number of men and women on the Board and 30% BAME. We will work hard to ensure that we achieve gender parity in the future. And we’re strongly committed to achieving greater diversity overall, including people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds and those with a disability.

But we can’t do this alone. Each body needs to take responsibility for achieving a more representative workforce. Every partner should commit to making a difference. That means taking an honest look at your own diversity statistics. Where are the inequalities greatest – and why? Are there issues specific to you, your sport or audience group that throws up challenges? You are unique, and your approach to tackling inequality needs to be based on the characteristics of your organisation.

Delivering change

My determination to address sport’s diversity problem is absolute. The Code is here to provide an advisory action plan – a blueprint, if you like – but we continue to review its effectiveness. It is a living, breathing document. If change doesn’t happen at the speed or scale needed, we’ll consider rolling out specific equality targets that are embedded in the way we fund partners in much the same way that we have for gender diversity.

The Code is not meant to be an exhaustive list of actions that funded bodies should take to engender diversity within their sports and organisations. For instance, although the gender target for boards is set at 30% there really is no reason why organisations should not be aspiring to have gender parity at Board level and throughout their senior management teams.

There is no shortage of goodwill. Every time I meet leaders from across the sector, awareness of the Code is high. But equality is only achieved when people in Boards and beyond understand, embrace and champion diversity.