If you’ve been keeping up with our news stories recently, you’ll know that the gender gap is something we’ve been talking about a lot, especially when it comes to gender inequality in racing. ASICS have just released their exercise gap study. It’s the largest ever study conducted on this topic. And the results are far from ideal.
It found that over half of women in the UK are having to stop exercising completely, due to various lifestyle pressures. And even more women are not exercising as much as they would like, for the same reasons.
Lack of time to exercise was a huge factor, especially among mothers, followed by low self-confidence and not feeling sporty enough. Participants frequently described how societal expectations about gender roles, particularly around household responsibilities, played a major part in them stopping exercise.
And if this wasn’t frustrating enough, there’s more. The study also talked to men about the reasons why female participation in exercise is so low. The male participants only identified one of the five barriers to exercise for women, which was the cost of gyms. Only 34% of men recognised a lack of time as a barrier to exercise for women, compared to 80% of women in the UK who cited the issue.
Dr Dee Dlugonski lead the study….
