Sport England’s groundbreaking This Girl Can launches today with a powerful new campaign, We Like the Way You Move, redefining what women getting active looks like and championing under-represented groups, including South Asian Muslim women.
Thirteen street-cast women from across England take centre stage in the TV advert, shown moving in ways that reflect their real lives from family bike rides, dancing in the kitchen and pregnancy yoga, to wheelchair rugby, boxing and walking football.
Soundtracked by a reimagined version of the BodyRockers’ iconic track I Like the Way, the campaign comes as a new study reveals how far the world of sport and physical activity still has to go in representing all women.
Image: This Girl Can
Using AI-powered analysis of over 4,000 publicly available photos from sports clubs, community centres, parks, gyms, swimming pools and other leisure facilities across England, sourced via Google Maps, the study found that Black women, South Asian women, women with disabilities, older women and pregnant women are almost entirely erased from the picture of sport and physical activity presented online.
Findings from the analysis included that women of colour were virtually invisible. Out of 8,559 women pictured, only 61 were South Asian, despite South Asian women making up 6.8% of the population (2021 Census data). Almost half of these images were confined to London-based facilities, with entire regions showing next to no representation of women of colour.
Despite being unseen in the world of sports and physical activity, data from Sport England reveals that South Asian Muslim women would feel more welcome if they were offered women-only sessions (47%), if there was flexibility with clothing/ dress (31%), and if there were staff who understand their needs (25%).
The same report reflected that holistic health benefits especially those tied to better sleep, social connection, and self-empowerment are powerful incentives for engaging in physical activity for South Asian Muslim women.
Kate Dale, Director of Marketing at This Girl Can and Sport England, said: “A picture is worth a thousand words, and our findings show that some South Asian Muslim women remain underrepresented in physical activity spaces that should welcome them, making it harder to feel they belong. When excluded, they miss out on the physical, mental, and social benefits of being active, which deepens health inequalities. Truly inclusive spaces allow everyone to find activities that work for them, and while This Girl Can has inspired over four million women to get active in the past decade, inequality persists. We are here for the women left behind, and together we can change the picture of what being active looks like.”
Image: This Girl Can
One of the women featuring in the new campaign, Sara, 32 from Walsall, is a mum-of-three who is redefining what getting active looks like for herself and her family.
“Wearing a headscarf shouldn’t hold me back, so I don’t let it,” says Sara. “After struggling with my mental health, I realised I needed to look after myself as well as my family. Movement has lifted me – whether that’s cycling with my kids or carving out time on my own – it boosts my energy and reminds me that health is wealth. I want my children to see that staying active is for all of us.”
Yashmin Harun is Founder and Chair of Muslimah Sports Association, which offers women a safe and positive environment to participate in sports without compromising their religious or cultural beliefs. Yashmin, who is also a panel member across This Girl Can’s inaugural South Asian Muslim Women’s Advisory Panel said: “South Asian Muslim women have long faced barriers to being active – from a lack of women-only spaces to limited flexibility with clothing. The availability of inclusive opportunities, such as those offered by Muslimah Sports Association and other community-led organisations like ours, show how, when provided with the right environment, many women are motivated to overcome their barriers and get active. With This Girl Can’s We Like the Way You Move campaign highlighting what South Asian Muslim women need, it’s an exciting time for providers to create spaces where we can move, belong, and thrive on our own terms.”
This Girl Can is inviting women everywhere to change the picture of what getting active looks like by sharing their own ways of moving on social media using #ThisGirlCan and tagging This Girl Can.
Whether it’s a stretch in the living room, a kickabout in the park or a swim with friends, every woman’s story helps show that there’s no one way to be active.
To find out more, visit https://www.thisgirlcan.co.uk/move.
