Stephanie Hilborne OBE
Chief Executive, Women in Sport
Leisure centres should be places where everyone feels safe, assured and motivated to be active. Yet, for many women and girls, this is far from the case.
A 2023 Sport England study showed that 42% of women experience sexual harassment or intimidation at leisure centres, including inappropriate comments and invasion of personal space. For women aged 16–24, this figure rose to 83%.
This study aligns with the everyday experience of many people Women in Sport talk to and is concerning given the ongoing gender gap in activity. Public leisure centres should be serving their entire community given that they are supported by public money drawn from the taxes of both men and women.
Transforming leisure centres for teenage girls
To tackle this deep-rooted issue, the charity Women in Sport teamed up with leisure provider Places Leisure to trial ‘Big Sister.’ Initially grant-funded by the Tampon Tax, this was designed by teenage girls, for teenage girls, to make leisure centres a more welcoming place.
Over 3,000 teenage girls took part in the pilot in three relatively low-income areas in May 2022. Outreach staff encouraged girls aged 9–15 to join the centres by offering free memberships and access to girls-only classes with female instructors. The staff were trained to understand and address their needs.
Leisure centres must understand
the unique needs of women and
girls to meet them where they are.
The results were clear — 6 in 10 girls said they enjoyed sport more and felt more confident trying new things. As one 11-year-old girl told us: “I really like it because it’s in my age group, and it’s only girls.”
Inspired by its success, and despite the end of the grant, Places Leisure is now rolling Big Sister out nationwide to all of its 100 centres offering free or discounted memberships to girls, according to their means. This commitment to fostering a safe, welcoming space for teenage girls is one we hope other leisure providers will adopt.
Meeting women where they are
‘The leisure centre problem’ has been around throughout the 40 years our charity has existed. The early years of Women in Sport were dedicated to tackling this, influencing leisure centres to offer free creches, women-only sessions and lower rates for unemployed women to offset the gender pay gap. The progress we made depended heavily on Councils understanding their communities and sadly was set back by the introduction of Compulsory Competitive Tendering in 1988.
Big Sister showed us that true inclusion goes beyond simply providing access. Leisure centres must understand the unique needs of women and girls to meet them where they are. Big Sister was built on powerful qualitative research into the lives of teenage girls, which found that they feel painfully visible and judged by the male eye while exercising. It recognised that girls want to be active but need to feel that they belong, and leisure centres have the opportunity — and the responsibility — to help them on this journey.
