Barriers and Challenges to Getting into Sport
Welcome back to the third edition of ‘The Wellbeing Edit’. In the last Edit, I talked about how regular physical activity and sports can substantially benefit our physical, mental, and social well-being. These are well evidenced and there is a wide range of resources to support coaches, providers, and participants to increase participation in groups and individually. However, there remain groups and populations for whom we could do more to understand the challenges and barriers to participating in regular physical activity, sport, and exercise. And use this understanding to embed mechanisms and strategies to encourage increased uptake and regular participation.
It’s been ten years or so, since I first started exploring why women experience barriers to sport. My focus at this time was adventure sports activities, and my research was taking place in Scotland. While this is a subset of the overall picture, I looked back on that work as a starting point for this edition of the Wellbeing Edit.
Back then, I found that participation was male-dominated, as it always has been, and that there was little to indicate any narrowing or decrease for this inequality. There were, and continue to be, established debates about strength, risk perception, and family choices for women. However, few studies were looking at the lived experiences of women taking part in adventure sports activities, and even fewer specifically explored challenges and barriers to regular participation.
So, I conducted interviews, observations, and auto-ethnographic reflections on my own experiences as a participant. My research identified five key themes: i) participation cost; ii) lack of reliable information; iii) support of others; iv) general perception that adventure sport is largely unachievable; and, v) the importance of being part of a community.
Bringing myself back to the current day, I questioned if much had changed or improved?
A follow-up study is likely needed to fully answer that question. Of course, that would take time, funding, and staff resources. In the absence of that just now, I reverted to good old Google. Running a search for ‘female barriers sport participation’ I was amazed at the volume of hits. From Governments around the world, to global brands like Adidas, to national bodies like Sport England, to dedicated websites for supporting women to participate in sport.
Reading through the various reports, articles, and blogs I found a lot of information that aligned with that of my own research, but also came across information I was less aware of, including cultural references and a lack of diversity of role models and those in leadership roles; concerns about body image, lack of confidence and health-related issues across the female life course, some of which can begin in the early teens and adolescent years, therefore setting up for inactive adulthood; and disability.
Looking firstly at leadership, while there has been both research and action to address gender equity gaps in sports, women remain underrepresented in sports leadership roles. With the majority of these roles being filled by white, able-bodied males.
A 2020 systematic narrative review found that often institutional cultures can be a key barrier in achieving gender equality. The review also found that there was much research documenting what prevents progress – but less about what actually works to encourage progress. The paper closes with a suggestion that interventions, such as mentoring programmes, could be useful as a pathway to encourage more women into sports leadership roles.
In my reading about leadership, I also found many references to diversity and direct links to lack of diverse role models that could provide support and encouragement across populations. This of course, could be linked as far back as those considering taking up a sport or physical activity. Without role models that someone can self-identify with, it can be extremely difficult to cross that first challenge of showing up and expressing an interest in taking part. The topic itself is an extremely broad one, and within it specific nuances that I could not do merit to with the modest word count of this article.
However, a 2023 systematic review does do this, and more. The findings report on: ‘body image and societal beauty standards, family duty and social support, religious and cultural norms, organisation and community facilities and environment, safety issues and physical environment.’ Concluding that: ‘Future studies on young adult women’s PA should address the social-cultural influence and would benefit from applying multilevel strategies… It is critical to create an open and inclusive environment and offer more opportunities for women.’
What I learned through my research and reading for this edition of my Edit encouraged me to avoid trying to summarise the challenges and barriers to participating in regular physical activity, sport, and exercise. But rather to highlight a need to understand specific and individual experiences, to consider personalised approaches, to provide options – wide ranges of options, and to collaborate with participants and potential participants, ideally using co-design approaches, to move away from trying to continue defining what doesn’t work, and shift the focus to developing solutions to what could work.
