Taboos around women’s bodies are holding girls back from pursuing sport into adulthood and preventing the creation of “a generation of fit and healthy women”, a parliamentary committee has heard.
With surveys showing 64% of girls give up sport by the end of puberty, experts told the women and equalities committee that a complete sea change in understanding around the impact of sport on female bodies is required, but that such a change is possible and “if we get it right we’d be on a winning streak”.
Speaking in front of the committee, Tanni Grey-Thompson framed the scale of the challenge after another year of great sporting success for women at the elite level. “The summer of sport has been amazing, there are always spikes in participation that follow but you have got to have more than just the inspirational moments, you have to have programmes behind it,” she said. “What’s really important is that we have a generation of fit and healthy women, and 80% are not fit enough to be healthy – and that’s because of all the barriers to participation we know about.”
Challenges around physical safety and the continuing rise in abuse of professional athletes are large-scale issues that influence the problem, Lady Grey-Thompson said.
According to Dr Emma Ross, the chief scientific officer at women’s sport consultancy The Well HQ, there are also smaller barriers that could be removed with great benefit.
“Sport is an amazing place for us to teach girls about their bodies,” she said. “We know that over half of girls will skip sport when they are on their period. Over half have issues with their breasts when undertaking physical activity, be that pain, movement or fear of judgment; 40% of girls during puberty have urinary stress incontinence.
“You ask girls to use their bodies and then their bodies do things that don’t feel like they work with sport; like having a period, like developing breasts, like leaking urine when you’re jumping around. But we don’t create an environment that says ‘this is normal and here’s what we can do about it’. If we can get that right we’d be on a winning streak.”
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Ross said she believed that girls becoming comfortable talking about their bodies is key, alongside coaches who are both empathetic and educated. “It’s not easy to do but it doesn’t require money,” she said. “What it does require is everyone in that space feeling comfortable talking about the topic and they often don’t.”
