Belonging Starts with Inclusion

I always thought I wasn’t made for exercise… but it turns out exercise wasn’t made for me.

At This Girl Can, we believe every woman deserves to feel she belongs in the world of physical activity, however she chooses to do it.

But our research shows too many women still face barriers that stop them from getting active.

Only one in 10 women on lower incomes feel they completely belong in the world of physical activity.

One in six women felt so unwelcome in a physical activity setting that they’ve never returned.

Only 9% of our women are active in a typical week.

We’ve seen how lack of representation, accessibility, and social norms, can combine to create a cycle where women feel excluded, and leads them to exclude themselves from physical activity.

You can read more about these challenges and the evidence behind our approach in our Belonging Starts with Inclusion Insight.

Find out more

What 'Belonging starts with inclusion' means

The video begins with a high-tempo, upbeat music track that continues throughout, with the This Girl Can logo in the top right of the screen.

A female voiceover says the following words: "For 10 years, This Girl Can has celebrated women getting active in whatever ways work for them."

During this sentence, we see the words ‘For 10 years’ appear on a purple background, followed by a quick transition between shots of different women getting active: kicking a boxing bag, jumping on a trampoline, swimming, practising judo, roller-skating, boxing, playing rugby and using a seated leg press in a gym.

The voiceover continues: "Together, we've helped to break down barriers, challenge stereotypes and show there's no one way to be active."

During this sentence, we see the words ‘Helped to break down barriers’ drop in from the top of the screen on a purple background, followed by a split screen of the words ‘Challenge stereotypes’ and, to the right, shots of different women running, exercising with their babies, dancing and doing warm-up squat jumps with a group on a pitch in a circle.

The voiceover continues: "But despite this progress, there is still more work to be done."

The words ‘There is still more work to be done’ slide in on the purple background.

The voiceover says: "Women remain less active than men." These words appear individually on screen.

She continues: "And for some, the world of sport and physical activity still doesn't feel like a space where they belong."

During this sentence, we see a defeated-looking woman leaning on a wall, a woman arguing with a man in a living room and an exhausted woman collapsing onto a sofa.

The voiceover says: "Our research found that only one in 10 women from lower-income backgrounds feel they completely belong in physical activity."

The words ‘One in 10 women from lower-income backgrounds feel they completely belong in physical activity’ appear on screen.

A shot of two women walking with their children in prams appears alongside the following text, which is also spoken: "And one in six have felt so unwelcome that they've never returned to that activity."

The voiceover says: "But this isn't just about the sport and physical activity sector. It's bigger than that."

The words ‘This isn’t just about our sector’ slide in and flash on a green background.

The voiceover continues: "This feeling of exclusion is shaped by a mix of economic, social and emotional barriers."

During this sentence, we see a slow-motion shot of people walking down a busy high street.

The voiceover says: "Right now, 61% of women on lower incomes are thinking about getting active."

There’s a split screen with the text ‘61% of women on lower incomes’ on the left, and shots of women dancing on the right.

The words ‘thinking about getting active’ are then overlaid across the whole screen, with the women dancing in the background.

The voiceover says: "Lots of great work is already happening across the country, but we're not there yet."

During this sentence we see shots of the Black Girls Do Run club warming up and laughing, before the words ‘But we’re not there yet’ appear over the top of a woman preparing to lift a barbell.

The voiceover says: "This is our opportunity to change the narrative and support our women."

During this, the words ‘This is our opportunity’ scroll across the screen on a purple background, followed by ‘to change the narrative and support our women’ appearing individually.

There’s a shot of a large group of women and roller-skaters dancing, embracing and clapping animatedly, with the following overlaid words that are also spoken:

"Together, we can help more women feel like they belong in the world of sport and physical activity and inspire them to be more active."

The voiceover continues: "Our insight report shows how we can all bring back joy, make women feel seen, and create a world where every woman feels welcomed. Read it to see how you can help."

During this sentence, we see a shot of the front cover of the report, entitled ‘Belonging Starts with Inclusion’ followed by pages from it with the titles ‘Methodology’, ‘About our women’, ‘Barriers’, ‘Motivations’ and ‘Conclusion and shared ambition’.

The following words appear on the screen as they’re spoken: "Because belonging starts with inclusion."

The video ends with a slate featuring the This Girl Can logo and the URL www.thisgirlcan.co.uk/startwithinclusion, as the music track comes to an abrupt end.

Belonging Starts with Inclusion is our strategy that seeks to reduce our women’s barriers that exclude them from physical activity, by showing how women like them are getting active.

Only when our women are seen, heard and included can they genuinely feel a sense of belonging within the world of physical activity.

Belonging

When every woman feels welcomed in the world of physical activity, in ways that fit her life, preferences, and identity.

Starts with

Making the first step, because creating belonging is a journey, not an instant fix. It’s about starting where we are and committing to progress over time.

Inclusion

Designing and delivering opportunities that are truly accessible, affordable, and welcoming.

It’s also about ensuring the people around our women, from providers to friends to broader society, play an active role in making them feel they belong.

Our approach

Three women, one holding their baby, stand on a mural painted on the ground, which carries the slogan 'some barriers are too big to tackle alone' - the mural also features a painting of the three women, standing in the pose they're stood in

Our role for the next phase of This Girl Can is to create a culture of openness so all women feel included in physical activity, and is broken down into three strands:

Raise It

Voicing the need for change so all women can feel they belong.

We speak openly about the barriers our women have told us they face and the inequalities that persist. From the lack of representation in marketing to inflexible activity offers, we bring these issues to the surface so they can be addressed.

Read the news story

Shape it

Working alongside you, our partners and supporters in the sector, to build a more inclusive system. This includes:

Sharing insights from our research so you can understand what women need and what would make the biggest difference to them.
Creating opportunities for you to hear directly from women about their wants and experiences.
Facilitating conversations and sharing best practice from those already leading the way on inclusion.

Celebrate it

Championing and celebrating what belonging looks and feel like.

We share the stories, successes, and progress happening across communities via a targeted media campaign, showing the breadth of ways women get active and the joy it can bring.

Different women have different needs and the solutions must reflect that. The barriers these women face are wide-ranging, complex and often beyond their control.

It is up to everyone who has a role in getting women active, from policymakers to employers to people that run fitness spaces, to create environments that work for all women – because belonging starts with inclusion.

Kate Dale

Director of marketing, This Girl Can

No woman left behind

This Girl Can is, and always will be, a campaign for all women. But we know the groups who face the greatest barriers to exercise have the most to gain – and they will be our main target audiences for this phase. We call them our women to ensure they stay at the centre of our work.

They are all women on lower incomes, and who are also:

From South Asian Muslim communities 
From black communities
Aged 55 years or over  
Pregnant and/or have a child under one year old.

Ensuring all women feel able and welcome to get active isn’t just the right thing to do. It's also a big opportunity for the sports and physical activity sector. There are 3.6 million of our women – that’s a lot of untapped potential.

This does not mean you can only use This Girl Can if you are directly supporting these audiences. You know the women you are trying to reach best and the insights and resources we provide can be used to support anyone who needs advice, guidance and motivation to get active.

Together we can make sport, physical activity and movement feel appealing, relevant and possible for all women. And we have the insight and resources to help you do this.

See how our new 'We like the way you move' campaign brings this to life