Campaign Helps Tackle Sport Gender Gap

Nearly 30 new female sports coaches have been trained up across West Yorkshire since the start of this year to help tackle a massive gender gap.

It's off the back of the 'This Girl Can' campaign to try and get more females active - it's thought that only a third of women do any physical activity.

Les Ford is Coaching Development Manager at West Yorkshire Sport and explains why women are being put off.

“It’s around the confidence issue, it’s around the fear of being judged, turning up to do sport and being not quite sure whether it’s for me, thinking do I look okay, how am I going to look when I’m doing it - so being in that female only, friendly supportive environment will really help some people come into the sport.”

The aim of the campaign was to change perceptions in sport – and has seen more than 360 local women take up sports like hockey and rowing since January.

“In terms of the coaching workforce only 30 % of coaches are women so it’s almost saying that actually if we want more females participating we need more female role models, we need coaches generally to be more female friendly and understanding what women are coming in to sport for.

“Women’s sport has a low profile so this whole campaign is about talking up women’s involvement , getting through those barriers of judgement, helping boost people’s confidence and actually yeah – you can get out there and do sport but importantly you can get out there and coach, you’ve got the skills so go for it.”

To find out more about the campaign, click here.