We believe it is wrong to deny women and girls access to sport, but currently we are being left on the sidelines and it is leading to gendered health inequalities:
- Gender stereotyping is alive and kicking. Girls as young as 5 years old feel they don’t belong in sport. Only 30% of parents believe playing sport is very important for their daughter, compared with 41% of parents for their sons.
- There’s a mental health crisis in teenage girls. Anxiety is spiralling upwards, along with self-harm and eating disorders. By the time they reach puberty, 1.3 million girls who once loved sport are disengaging.
- Women in midlife are suffering from the cumulative impact of decades of limiting gender stereotyping. A third of women aged 41-60 are not meeting the Chief Medical Officer’s guidelines of 150 minutes of physical activity per week. 84% of inactive women at this life stage want to be more active.
- Women in wiser life are twice as likely as men to suffer a fracture after a fall. By the age of 80 years old, half of women will suffer with osteoporosis.
(NICE)
