Why Ending the ‘Enjoyment Gap’ Is Sport England’s Next Mission

This Girl Can, Sport England’s campaign to encourage women to get active, has launched a new phase to address the ‘pleasure gap’ in sport and exercise. Titled This Girl Can With You, it aims to inspire sports and activity providers to break down the barriers that prevent women from engaging in physical activity. Research from Sport England has found that there is a significant gender gap between men and women, with 2.4 million fewer women than men believing that they find sport and exercise enjoyable and satisfying.

The new phase of the campaign, created with UK agency FCB Inferno, who have been developing the campaign since 2015, is based on extensive consultation and research with women from communities across the country. She identifies four fields of action that can help break down barriers for women and close the enjoyment gap: Activities for women must be social, appropriate, self-affirming and safe. The campaign has also highlighted grassroots groups and organizations already working to close the gap.

The campaign has also partnered with Olympic gold medalist Nicola Adams to promote the initiative and host an interactive boxing experience at Westfield Stratford City in London to encourage women to fight back against the barriers preventing them from being active become.

To find out what was going on in this final phase of a societal change campaign, LBB’s Alex Reeves sat down with Kate Dale, Head of Marketing at Sport England, Jessica Giles, Creative Director at FCB Inferno and Tom Lindo, Strategy Director.

LBB> This is the fifth phase of This Girl Can. Where did this phase begin and how does it pick up where the first four made progress?

Jessica> Since 2015, This Girl Can has revolutionized the way we talk to women. The last four This Girl Can campaigns have largely focused on closing the gender gap by reducing the fear of judgement, and have been incredibly successful at breaking down that barrier. As a result, we’ve empowered 2.9 million more women to take action. But for all our progress, we’ve found that women’s activity levels are faltering, and research has shown that this is due to a phenomenon we call “The Enjoyment Gap” – that many women don’t find exercise as enjoyable as men . We knew we had to adapt our campaign to reach a different audience that could effect change at a larger scale, so we took a more B2B approach in this final phase. By highlighting the incredible stories of women in the industry doing things to make sport and activity more enjoyable for women, we could inspire others to do the same.

LBB> What were the central questions that you wanted to answer in the run-up to this current study?

Tom> Because this phase of This Girl Can is focused on engaging the sports and exercise sector, we needed our research to uncover insights that companies could act on. It has been a major shift and required us to understand the pressures, needs and demands from people running sports centers to people running their own sports groups.

We then had to map this against the current treatment of women and girls across the country. We divided it into three phases:

1) What prevents women from getting involved in the sport and physical activity sector?

2) What pressure is the sector facing?

3) What opportunities are there for the sector to adapt to get more women and girls active?

It was only by working through it in this order that we were able to arrive at universal insights and a platform that could both influence Sport England politics and serve as a platform for our B2B campaign.

LBB> How did the research work? What were the keys to learning the truth about how women feel?

Tom> Our starting point is always to talk to the people who know the industry best. This started with conversations with people within the Sport England network who helped create broader conversations with people who run sports groups, run sports centres, train and teach. From there we then spoke to various behavioral experts who helped us find areas of interest and make sense of the vast amount of information we had. The greatest tool we have working with Sport England is accessing and understanding their Active Lives survey, which is one of the most comprehensive studies of activity available. The attitudinal information was crucial here as it allowed us to stress test our observations against the data points and, more importantly, to show how their ‘joy’ affected different demographics and specific areas across England.

LBB> Unfortunately, it seems predictable that you will find these inhibitions in women when it comes to getting active. But what was particularly surprising or shocking?

Tom> The question reveals the answer. Much of what we uncovered seemed obvious and universal. What was most surprising was that so little had been done about it up to that point. Aspects like safety make headlines for good reason, but that sport and exercise have traditionally been less sociable is something schools have long noted. Hopefully very soon we will see some positive changes by highlighting these results and giving people the right tools and knowledge on how to deal with them.

LBB> What was the creative insight that turned these insights into an inspirational and society-changing campaign?

Jess> The idea of ​​bridging the pleasure gap was an exciting new creative challenge, especially as we shifted more to a B2B model. We’ve found from previous campaigns and our recent research that there are so many women working tirelessly to make sport and activity more enjoyable for women, so we created the This Girl Can With You campaign. We knew that activities weren’t just about having fun, but that there were four key barriers standing in the way of enjoyment: safety, fitness, self-affirming spaces, and social support. By finding groups that specifically challenged these barriers, we were able to share inspiring stories and practical ways organizations can take it upon themselves to close the enjoyment gap at a larger societal level.

LBB> How did you select the groups and individuals working to change things that the campaign emphasizes?

Kate Dale> We’re always looking for women and girls who will get as active as they can without giving a damn what other people think; and of course we want to make sure we have true diversity – that is, women of all shapes, sizes, abilities and backgrounds, engaging in a wide range of activities in a variety of settings. There is no one right way to be active, and there is no one right way while doing it. We’ve always celebrated women taking action in everyday life in normal, understandable ways. Every day for This Girl Can With You, we celebrate organizers (we call them makers) who help women take action. We are looking for women who have seen and filled a gap in the market. They understood what the women they were trying to reach needed and just went ahead – like many women do.

LBB> How would you like to see this campaign and change society in England to get more women active?

Kate> We want to close the enjoyment gap – it’s not inevitable and it can be fixed. By focusing on the four areas of action we have identified – social, self-affirming, appropriate and safe – everyone involved in organizing activities can make a contribution. Imagine generations of women feeling empowered and motivated to get as active as it works for them, supported by a sport and exercise sector that made everything possible. Together we can do it – and the advantages are enormous. Getting active plays such an important role in our physical and mental health, building self-esteem, and connecting communities. Active mothers are more likely to raise active children. It’s vital work.