Did you know that the five most popular activities to participate in are walking (19%) swimming (17%), visiting the gym (10%), recreational cycling (5%), and road running and jogging (including athletics) (4%).

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e-newsletter :: issue 1

Sue Tibballs

Chief Executive

Hello and a very warm welcome to the first edition of our new e-zine. As many of you will know, we re-launched as the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation in November last year. We added the extra 'F' because we want to reach all women, and work across all activities. We have set ourselves a new goal: to make physical activity part of every woman's life. Ambitious given over 80% of women don't do enough activity to maintain their health, but we believe conditions are right to make some real progress. We are working hard to get our house in order so that we can help drive that progress. But we certainly can't do it alone. Please do keep in touch, and give us your ideas and feed-back.

The sporting year to come

January 2008

The traditional Grand Slam curtain-raiser to the tennis season is the Australian Open. As we go to press, Maria Sharapova has just celebrated an emotional victory. But the drama served up by the first round match between Jelena Jankovic and Tamira Paszek might be impossible to beat. Paszek served for the match 5 times, before Jankovic finally pulled through.

In the final weeks of the month, Charlotte Edwards will lead England's cricket team into the Ashes out in Australia. The series includes 5 one-day matches, one test match and a 20-20 match at the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground. The latter will take place just before the Australian men take on India on the same ground - a great chance for the England women to get some well-deserved exposure.

February 2008

This month gives the first opportunity to check out the form of some of our Beijing athletes as they launch their season in Sheffield with the indoor UK Champs and World trials.

England, Scotland and Wales will all take to the field in Rugby's Six-Nations Championships. Best of luck to WSFF's very own Katy Storie as she represents England. Hopefully the BBC will repeat last year's successful broadcast, and show some of the matches live (even if they are hidden behind the red button).

Glasgow's historic Kelvin Hall hosts the Netball European Championships. The tournament offers new England head coach Sue Hawkins a chance to take home some silverware at the first attempt.

March 2008

Preparation for Beijing continues with the World Indoor Athletic Championships in Valencia. Heptathletes and medal hopes Kelly Sotherton and Jessica Ennis will probably choose this event to hone their form in key events.

Just as ITV's Dancing on Ice draws to a conclusion, check out the professionals performing double axels and triple salkos at the World Figure Skating Championships in Gothenburg.

The end of the month sees the pinnacle of training for our Beijing hopeful swimmers. The GB team's Olympic trials begin on March 31st at Ponds Forge in Sheffield, and continue for a week.

April 2008

Paula Radcliffe returns to London for the first time since the birth of daughter Isla, and will join 35,000 other fools (including your writer) in trying to run 26 miles, 365 yards past some of London's greatest landmarks.

Back on the ice, Great Britain's Ice hockey team will take part in the World Championships in Hungary, looking to gain promotion from division 3.

April 5th sees one of the greatest spectacles in the Racing calendar - the Aintree Grand National. Jenny Pitman became the first winning woman trainer in 1983 with Corbiere. Geraldine Rees was the first woman jockey to complete the race in 1982 but as yet no woman jockey has won the race. Maybe 2008 is the year!

Live in the North-west? Then get yourself down to the Manchester Velodrome and check out Sportswoman of the Year Victoria Pendleton as she and her GB colleagues compete in the World Track Cycling Championships.

April is a busy month and Netball's season reaches its climax with the Superleague Grand Final taking place in Crawley. Check out the progress of all the Superleague teams on Sky Sports throughout the Spring.

May 2008

This month, Zara Phillips will continue her Olympic preparations at the dramatic Badminton horse trials. Trivia fact for you all - the Equestrian events at the Olympics will not take place in Beijing, but in Hong Kong following an outbreak of equine diseases in mainland China.

England's hockey women have already qualified for Beijing (a feat not yet matched by the men) and they will meet some of their upcoming opponents in the Champions Trophy. Baseline specialists will rejoice as the tennis season reaches the red clay courts of Roland Garros.

Nerve-jangling tension will be the order of the day in golf, as GB and Ireland's Curtis Cup team will attempt to avoid a sixth loss in a row against the all-conquering USA team. This is one of the best spectacles in amateur golf and this year is held on the Old Course, St Andrews (they still don't let women be members but at least they get to play on the course now).

June 2008

Thousands of runners will take over Leeds City Centre to take part in Jane Tomlinson's Run for All 10k. The event, organised by Jane's family, will gather 12,000 runners and 50,000 supporters and raised over £500,000 for charity in its inaugural year in 2007.

Nicole Cooke, and her new professional GB team (Team Halfords Bike Hut), finish their Olympic preparation by taking on the biggest challenge in women's road racing - the Grand Boucle - the women's version of the Tour De France.

July 2008

The first week of July sees the second and crucial week of Wimbledon. Last year's Wimbledon tennis tournament was significant as it heralded a new equal pay prize structure for men and women. This year, Great Britain's number one Katie O'Brien will be looking to capitalise on her potential and still be competing in the tournament as July dawns.

Britain's rowers will be out in force at the Henley Royal Regatta. Katherine Grainger's quadruple sculls are regarded as the sport's best gold medal hopes and this will be their final race on home water before they fly to China.

August 2008

Draw the curtains, call in sick, it's time to settle down for the sporting feast that is the 2008 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games (more of which in September). The opening ceremony takes place on August 8th and then it is 24 hour coverage all the way through to August 24th. Athletics is still the flagship event and Kelly Sotherton, Jessica Ennis, Christine Ohuruogu and Nicola Sanders will all be in the hunt for medals. Paula Radcliffe will be looking to put her Athens nightmare behind her - her last Olympic marathon is still the only race of that distance she has lost.

Caitlin Mclatchey and Lizzie Symonds will be aiming for gold in the pool, Ayton, Webb and Wilson will be hopefully sailing to a medal in the Yngling class, royalty will be represented as Zara Phillips takes to the Equestrian stage, Nicole Cooke, Shanaze Read and Victoria Pendleton will be getting on their bikes on the road and on the track and Gail Emms will be looking to crown the end of her fantastic partnership with Nathan Robertson by winning the mixed pairs Badminton gold. Phew!

September 2008

We might all need a rest after all that, but after just a fortnight's break, the Paralympian athletes take the spotlight. Plenty of medal opportunities for GB's women, and all the best to our sponsor Scottish Widows' Olympic ambassador Sarah Storey (nee Bailey) as she aims for gold in the track cycling.

The Federation Cup Final takes place this month, giving normally individual tennis players the rare chance to compete as a team. Russia may well be the favourites.

October 2008

After the team's fine showing at last year's World Cup, Hope Powell's England team is now focused on European Championship qualification. The 2nd of this month sees the team out in Spain for their final group match. Hopefully, they will already have ensured qualification but if not this should be a nail-biting affair.

Later this month, the world's best runners mix with hundreds of brave amateur athletes in the fantastic spectacle that is the BUPA Great North Run.

November and December 2008

It's looking like a busy year in 2008 so no wonder the final months are a bit quieter! The FA Tesco Women's Premier League continues with clubs trying to ensure that Arsenal don't run away with the title again.

The USLPGA golf tour reaches its climax at Trump International Golf Club in Florida, with the LPGA Championships. Will Michelle Wie ever live up to the hype? It's more likely that Mexican Lorena Ochea will continue her stunning run of success and take the title.

What's the future for 'It's time'?

It's time, sponsored by Scottish Widows, examined the drivers of women's involvement in sport and physical activity, and considered future trends. In particular, the research identified a couple of incredible opportunities. If we could enable teenage girls to take their exercise patterns with them into adult life, the overall increase in exercise levels for women could be as high as 16% by 2017. Similarly, if we could persuade the baby boomers of the 1960s (aged about 55 now) to retain their activity levels into their older years we'd achieve at least a 6% rise in the next ten years. We're now taking the first steps to thinking about how this can be achieved.

In the next few months we will be undertaking a wide-ranging consultation with our stakeholders to consider what interventions really work, with the aim to publish our vision for achieving a step-change in participation by the summer. We'll be issuing invites to get involved in the next few weeks, but feel free to email [email protected] if you want to register your interest.

For more information on the Scottish Widows sponsored project click here.

Who's who at WSFF

Every month, we'll introduce a member of staff and their role at WSFF. First up is our longest-serving member of staff, Chris Lillistone. Find out here about Chris' starring role in a Channel 4 bra documentary and why Jonathan Edwards made her cry...

Chris Lillistone profile
For a full contact list click here.

Research update

January 2008

The Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation recently carried out a survey of men and women living in Great Britain to further understand their experiences of sport, the impact of their body on activity, as well as learn about their attitudes towards sport and physical activity. The headline figures were reported in November 2007, in the It's time report. This paper highlights some of the more interesting results detailed from the study, primarily about women, which have not been published before.

You are active, you just don't want to do sport...

We weren't surprised to find that almost 60% of you prefer exercising to sport. This is slightly less likely to be the case if you are under 35, but not much. Those of you living in North England are most likely to think this (68%) compared with 53% of you in the Midlands and Scotland.

One in ten of you have done some kind of long distance run for charity (e.g. a marathon or half marathon), with 21 times as many 18 to 24 year-olds having done so (21%) compared with older women aged 65 and over (1%).

Women from AB and C2 groups are three times as likely as women from the DE group to run a marathon or half marathon for charity (14%, 12% and 4% respectively).

What might make you do more?

When given a selected list of motivations that might encourage you to do more sport and exercise, the top choice overall was 'if health was at risk' - 86% of you agreed with this, slightly more than men (80%).

Other motivations influencing whether women would exercise more are affected by age and life stage. For younger women cheaper facilities just pips health to the top post (88% and 87% respectively). For women aged 35 to44, exercising with families was relatively high on their list of what would encourage them to exercise - 75% said this would, compared with just 61% of all women generally. Flexible working was a factor for women in the prime of their working lives aged 18 to 44. For 10% of women aged 65 and over nothing would encourage them to do more exercise.

Interestingly for women of lower socio-economic groups, cheaper facilities is not as much a motivation as it is for women of higher socio-economic groups: 71 per cent of AB women said they would exercise if facilities were cheaper compared with 66% of DE women.

Hands up who's favourite leisure pastime is watching sport?

Double the proportion of men than women (47% compared with 23%) said watching sport was their favourite pastime. While older women have more negative views about their experiences of sport, interestingly they are most likely to say that their favourite pastime is watching sport (31% of women aged 65 and over agree compared with less than 22% for all other groups). This is a different profile to men, when it's the youngest group most likely to say watching sports is their most favourite pastime (54%).

Youthful experiences

Were you encouraged to play sport?

One in four of you say you were never encouraged to play sport, compared with one in five men. Attitudes may have improved over time, as younger women are less likely (15% of 18 to 24 year-olds) to say this than older women (33% aged 65 and over).

More generally, 42% of women and 47% of men don't think girls get as much encouragement to do sport as boys.

What you had to say about PE...

Around 23% of you believe PE at school put you off doing any sport. This does not vary much by age - which might indicate that school PE has not changed very much over time - but social class does seem to have an influence. Almost three in ten (27%) of you from the lowest socio-economic group (DE) agreed with this compared with than less than one in five of you (19%) from the highest social group (AB).

Body, body body...

Can you be sporty yet still be feminine?

On a positive note, less than 7% of all women agree with the idea that being sporty is not feminine. Unfortunately, men are more likely to have this negative view - with 21% thinking it is unfeminine. While it might be expected for older men to have this old fashioned view (26%) surprisingly the youngest male group are equally likely to think this. This could be explained by immaturity, when men are still developing their view of women and are more susceptible to the influences of media stereotypes and their peer group, but this is a measure that will be interesting to track as this generation gets older.

Some of you hate the way you look when you exercise...

Body consciousness is not just a concern of the young - women aged 55 to 64 are almost as likely to hate the way they look when they exercise as 18 to 24 year-olds (27% and 28% respectively). The age group most bothered are women aged 25 to 34 (32%), while women age 65 and over, and aged 45 to 54 are the least concerned (21 and 22% respectively). Again, women from the lowest socio-economic groups are more likely to be body conscious (31% of C2s and 29% of DEs compared with 21% of ABs).

While 65 year old women are the least worried about how they look when they exercise, they are still concerned about sweating. Two in five (18%) of them said sweating put them off doing any exercise, a similar proportion to 18 to 24 year-olds (19%). It would appear that as women turn 25 this stops being an issue - less than 10% of women aged 25 to 54 agreed with this statement.

Do you think you are healthy?

Over three in five (63%) of you think that you do enough exercise to be healthy and with the oldest age group 65 to be most likely to think this (75%). But with the evidence that only 20% of you are doing enough activity to benefit your health (Active People Survey 2006 ) there is a gap between perception and reality that needs bridging.

Incredibly, nearly half (44%) of women who only exercise once a month or less still think they are doing enough activity to benefit their health.

Being fit v being slim

It's good to see that three-quarters of you think it is more important to be fit than slim (74%).

It might be expected that younger women are most likely to think being slim is more important than being fit (18%) at a time when fashion and dating are an influence. But, in fact, it is women aged 65 and over who are most likely to say being thin is important (24%). Is this because their own definition of 'being fit' has either declined or has become less important, therefore the concerns of weight gain through ageing sit more heavily on their minds?

Regionally, women in the South East are most likely to think being slim is more important (20%) compared with their sisters across the border in Scotland (11%). Scottish women are the least pressured (28%).

But it is no surprise that some women feel pressured when virtually everyone thinks there is too much pressure on girls to be thin (84% of all people). Women aged 55 to 64 and 18 to 24 are most likely to think this (94 and 92% respectively), as are women from the highest socioeconomic group (92%).

Image is as important to you youngsters and to you...grannies? 18 to 24 year-old women are the most likely to say that when they play sport they want to have the latest kit (32%), but the next most fashion conscious group are women aged 65 and over (28%).

Women from the lowest socio-economic group are also the most keen to have the latest kit (24% respectively for both C2 and DE groups).

Poll results

This month, we asked visitors to our website:

Do you think girls are encouraged to play sport as much as boys?

Yes - 22%
No - 78%

Thanks to the 977 of you that voted.

Remember to come back to www.wsff.org.uk to vote in next month's poll

Stopwatch