Gender

A young person’s gender can have a significant impact on their opportunities to participate in and how they feel about PE, sport and physical activity. At all ages, girls are less active than boys, but boys have similar body confidence challenges, and their activity levels drop more steeply once they enter secondary school.

Evidence of Need

By age 7, girls are already less active than boys and this disparity widens as they move from childhood into adolescence. Adolescent girls are more likely to experience barriers to participation than boys with the biggest drop-off occurring during the transition from primary to secondary school.

At this time there are multiple factors that affect girls’ participation including disruption to friendship groups, the onset of puberty and declining body confidence and the increasing need to ‘fit in’ and be accepted amongst their peers.

There are challenges for boys too – their participation in physical activity declines more rapidly than girls through the teenage years from age 13 to 18. This has a profound effect on  incidents of poor mental health and behaviour. This is leading to poor engagement with school life, increases in exclusions and non-attendance, and a low sense of belonging.

Evidence shows, when opportunities are created with young peoples’ needs at the centre, understanding both barriers and motivations, it can have a profound effect not only on participation but wider life skills and educational outcomes.

Did you know?

45%
Across all ages, fewer girls (45%) meet physical activity recommendations compared with boys (50%) (Sport England, 2022)
69th
British 15-year-olds ranked 69th out of 72 countries in the world for life satisfaction, with boys in particular among the least satisfied with their lives
37%
Concerns or being self-conscious about their appearance often stops girls (37%) taking part in fun activities (Girlguiding, 2023)

Our Work

Girls Active

Girls Active is our commitment to fostering girls' participation in PE, sport and physical activity. The programme aims to tackle the barriers girls experience and through cultivating a movement of girls and young women, empower them to take positive action through influencing, leading, and inspiring their peers.

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Boys Move

Boys Move is a professional development programme designed to equip educators with the principles of how to use sport and play to address the mental health and behaviour issues of adolescent boys, improve their wellbeing, and engage them with school.

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Girls' Football in Schools

Funded by The FA and delivered by the Youth Sport Trust, Girls’ Football in Schools is a framework delivered locally by a national network of over 300 local partnerships and tailored programmes, working to achieve the ambition that every girl will have equal access to football in school by 2024.

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Girls Active National Reports 2024

The Youth Sport Trust have been conducting a Girls Active Survey since 2016, finding out what the barriers, motivations and perceptions are for girls in PE, physical activity and sport, both in and outside of school and how these differ to boys. In 2024 over 15,000 young people took part in the survey.

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Impact to Date

Girls Active has been delivered in over one-thousand primary and secondary schools since 2015 and has proven effective at increasing girls’ engagement, enjoyment and participation in PE, school sport and physical activity including:

  • 97% of leaders and 58% of participants feel more confident to take part in sport and physical activity
  • 79% of leaders and 55% of participants said the way they feel when taking part in sport and physical activity has improved
  • 68% of leaders and 51% of participants feel more confident about what their body can do
  • 79% of leaders and 54% of participants feel more engaged at school.

Evaluation of Boys Move in 2023-24 showed improved outcomes for boys engaged in the programme, including:

  • 74% of participants increased the amount of physical activity they did
  • 77% of participants increased the amount time being physically active with others
  • Increases in happiness (91%), resilience (77%) and connectedness (74%)
  • The majority of teachers reported that Boys Move had improved young peoples’ engagement and behaviour at school.

Contact Us

If you would like to find out more about this area of our work then get in touch with us today.

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