This Girl Can is piloting the ‘Ask for Angela’ campaign with the aim of making gyms safer spaces. The project allows people who feel they’re in an unsafe or vulnerable situation to ask staff for help by discreetly using the code word ‘Angela’.
11 fitness and leisure centres across south-west London are taking part in an eight-week pilot of the safety campaign. ‘Ask for Angela’ has previously had success in hospitality venues but these aren’t the only spaces where women and girls can feel vulnerable.
Research from ukactive and This Girl Can found that four in 10 women surveyed (42%) had experienced some form of sexual harassment or intimidation in their fitness or leisure centre and more than two thirds (68%) never reported it either because they did not know who to report it to or they did not think it was serious enough.
“For some, going to the gym can be an anxious experience,” said Claire Edwards, This Girl Can’s head of campaign activation. “Wearing tight clothing, changing in front of others, entering often heavily male-dominated spaces, as well as worries about getting active and not being good enough are all too common – often for women and girls.
“Our research found that safety concerns restrict women’s freedom and comfort in fitness…
