Women in Sport, the leading UK charity that researches sport purely from the perspective of women and girls, has today launched #TimeTogether, a new national campaign which will empower daughters and mums/mother-figures to get active.
Working in collaboration with creative & content agency Lucky7, and in partnership with Global – the largest commercial radio company in Europe – Women in Sport will be inviting daughters and mums/mother-figures to set aside time to develop their relationship with each other, and with exercise.
A host of organisations including Places Leisure, The Wildlife Trusts, Her Spirit, Our Parks, Canal and River Trust, BMC, and This Mum Runs will be offering activity ideas for mums/mother-figures and daughters across the UK to try, and share their experiences using #TimeTogether on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
The aim of the campaign is to inspire daughters and mums/mother-figures to discover a new way of spending time together, by being active, dancing together, walking together, climbing together, swimming together.
#TimeTogether is a development of Women in Sport’s teenage girls research, looking at how the relationship between mother/mother-figure and daughter can be instrumental in encouraging teenage girls to be active.
Currently, only 42% of teenage girls meet physical activity guidelines and just under a third of girls (32%) are inactive, engaging in less than an average of 30 minutes activity per day (Sport England Active Lives Children and Young People Survey Academic Year 2018/2019).
Mums are often reluctant to allocate time for themselves to be active with, 32% of women saying that they couldn’t prioritise exercise during lockdown as they had too much to do for others (Women in Sport, Lockdown Research, 2020).
Our research has shown that teenage girls cherish alone time with their mum/mother-figure and view their relationship as a ‘safe space’ without any fear of judgement. This campaign provides an opportunity for them to find their judgement free space together, get active, and discover the joy, fun and well-being benefits of exercise.
Stephanie Hilborne OBE, Chief Executive of Women in Sport, said: “When my daughter was a teenager we would practice shooting for netball in the garden and go for walks with the dog. This time together built a new relationship on a more equal footing, and I could see she valued these safe conversations, not least because her school friendships were increasingly plagued by social media dramas and conflicts. Our insights show that girls in their teens feel burdened by school work and social expectations, and at the same time the lives of their mothers are often fraught with growing pressures of work and providing emotional support and care for relatives. We want every mother and every daughter to feel they have permission to take time out to have fun outside and be active. There has rarely been a more important time for such special mutual support and to be active together than in this pandemic.”
The #TimeTogether campaign will be running from 5th to 31st October. For more information visit our TimeTogether page.
