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International Women’s Day is almost here and while it’s always a time to celebrate progress, it should also be a moment to consider what’s still holding women back from being active.

For the This Girl Can team that means confronting the barriers that continue to drive the gender activity gap. A few years ago, one of those obstacles became impossible to ignore. 

Facing the unacceptable 

In 2021, through This Girl Can’s partnership with ukactive, I started looking more closely at women’s experiences in gyms and leisure centres. What we found was uncomfortable reading. That was the start of Safer Spaces to Move. 

A significant proportion of women told us they had experienced some form of sexual harassment in these spaces and for younger women aged 16–24, those incidences were even higher.

Gyms and leisure centres are spaces designed for health, confidence and empowerment yet, for many women, they come with an extra layer of vigilance.

That doesn’t sit comfortably with the ambition of This Girl Can, which has always been about creating environments where women feel free to move in whatever way works for them without judgement.

And while feeling judged is one thing, feeling unsafe is something entirely different and unacceptable.
 

The research forced us to confront something important: if women don’t feel safe, they won’t feel free; and if they don’t feel free, their participation will always be limited.

When we spoke to operators across the sector, there was no denial of the issue. To our delight, there was a huge amount of willingness to act, although there was also some uncertainty on how to do it.

Because how do you tackle something as serious as sexual harassment in a way that is meaningful, proportionate and practical? How do you communicate about safety without inadvertently making people feel more anxious?

That tension became the starting point for Safer Spaces to Move.

I want to make something very clear – this was never about calling out the sector, instead it was about supporting it.

We worked with organisations like CIMSPA and Women’s Aid to make sure any guidance we developed was grounded in expertise, legally robust, survivor-informed and realistic for busy gym environments.

One of the biggest lessons that we learnt along the way was that policies alone don’t change experiences. Culture does.

Helping positive change

You can have all the right procedures written down, but if the members of your staff don’t feel confident using them, or members don’t know they exist, their impact is significantly limited.

That’s why the most recent phase of the project, which we've launched earlier this week, has focused heavily on communication and culture, which made us consider questions like: how is safety talked about in our gyms, clubs and sport and physical activity centres? How are expectations set in these environments? Do members understand how to report an incident and trust that it will be taken seriously? And how are staff trained to respond?

We also tested messaging with women who use gyms and then sense-checked it with operators on the ground.

We went back and forth, refining language and practical steps so that what we produced didn’t feel alarmist or theoretical, but usable and reassuring. This is because our work isn’t about amplifying fear. It’s about building confidence.

On International Women’s Day, we often talk about breaking barriers.

Sometimes those barriers are structural; sometimes social and sometimes they’re the quiet assessment and security checks women make in their heads when entering a new physical activity space: "Is anyone watching me too closely? Are there other women around here? Can I do this exercise without feeling on display? Will staff step in if something happens?"

I think if we’re truly serious about closing the gender activity gap, we have to address all of these.

Safer Spaces to Move is part of our response to these barriers and sits alongside everything This Girl Can stands for: visibility, confidence and the right to take up space. Not just in theory, but in practice as well.

Because progress for our sector isn’t just about encouraging more women through the door.

It’s about making sure that when they walk in, they feel they belong there – fully and safely, and that’s something worth committing to this International Women’s Day and every day, before or after.
 

January is a difficult month for many of us. It’s dark, cold, wet and the glow of the festive season feels a long time ago.

But it’s also a moment when millions of people make a conscious decision to reset – to move more and invest in their health.

That’s why January matters so much for gyms, swimming pools and leisure centres. It’s consistently their busiest month of the year and not just because of New Year’s resolutions.

But beyond the first month of the year, there is a growing understanding that physical activity is preventative medicine and that a healthy population drives a healthy economy.

The places we move are of critical importance.

Earlier this week, alongside ukactive, I visited three very different facilities in one day – across both the public and private sector.

What struck me was how similar the stories were.

Operators talked about strong footfall, rising memberships and people coming through the doors for more than just exercise.

They’re coming for health, of course – but also for confidence, connection, and support.

This feels vitally important in a time that is characterised by increasing isolation, screens and polarised views.

Spaces open to everybody

Another feature which stood out was the remarkable diversity of the people there – from teenagers arriving in their uniforms after school, to the group of retirees who had originally been referred by the next door hospital and now were coming four days a week (and spending as much time over lunch as in the class).

It was also fantastic to see the level of innovation and use of technology to bring health and leisure closer together – with sophisticated health checks, devising personalised programmes for each individual, linking to 'e-gyms' and other virtual support.

This is the preventative health agenda in action. It’s getting active from the ground up and it sits at the heart of our ambition at Sport England, working with our partners to help millions more people become active.

January brings this ambition to life, but the real story is what’s happening year-round.

The scale and growth of the gym and leisure sector are significant.

The UK Health & Fitness Market Report 2025 shows a record 11.5 million people are now members of a health or fitness club – up 6.1% on the previous year – with 616 million facility visits recorded, an increase of 8.2%.

These are not short-term spikes. Participation has been growing over consecutive years, supported by a unique infrastructure of public, private, large, medium and independent operators working across the country.
 

Sport England’s Active Lives Adults survey 2023-24 reinforces this picture.

Fitness activities and swimming continue to be major drivers of physical activity behind walking, with 904,000 more adults taking part compared to the previous year.

Demand is being driven by what people value most.

Polling from ukactive shows that 77% of members join a gym or leisure facility primarily to improve their mental health and wellbeing.

People also cite better sleep, increased confidence, managing health conditions and making new friends. This is about quality of life, not just physical fitness.

We’re also seeing important shifts in who is taking part. Female participation continues to grow, particularly through group exercise and classes.

Projects like Safer Spaces to Move, delivered with This Girl Can, are helping to remove barriers and make facilities more welcoming and safer for women.

Key community assets

Our latest Moving Communities report shows participation in public leisure has increased for every age group over 45, while gym activity is rising among under-16s, over-65s and people living in the most deprived communities.

Since 2017, the number of children and young people taking part in gym and fitness activity has increased by more than 12%.

Standards matter too. Facilities are improving every year, driven by initiatives such as The Active Standard, Quest and FitCert, ensuring that quality, safety and inclusion keep pace with growing demand.

All of this sits squarely within the Government’s priorities for economic growth and improving the NHS through the 10-year plan.

Health drives wealth and the social value created by being active is immense.

The sector contributes £122.9 billion in social value each year, including £15.9 billion in healthcare savings and £106.9 billion in wellbeing value – the equivalent of £2,600 per active adult – and more than double that for people with long-term health conditions or disabilities.

We gain £6 billion in productivity, thanks to a healthier workforce that takes fewer sick days.

The sector creates £5.7 billion in revenue and supports hundreds of thousands of jobs, many for young people at the start of their working lives.

These are extraordinary numbers.

January is important. But the real opportunity lies beyond it.

Gyms and leisure centres are not just places we go at the start of the year; they – and the people that work in them – are essential community assets, powering healthier lives, stronger communities and a more resilient economy all year round.
 

The concentrated focus of Black History Month provides an opportunity to gain new perspectives through events, articles and media programming that might otherwise be overlooked.

At its best, this month should stir our curiosity and resolve as we look back at the achievements and struggles of Black people, helping us gain a fuller understanding of Black histories to strengthen our grasp of the present.

This celebration (and the round-the-clock efforts by many through the year) should move us to action, reminding us that we don't have to accept the erasure of some people and communities as normal.