Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Oct 8:3:710666.
doi: 10.3389/fspor.2021.710666. eCollection 2021.

Five-Year Changes in Community-Level Sport Participation, and the Role of Gender Strategies

Rochelle Eime  1   2 , Melanie Charity  1   2 , Jack Harvey  1   2 , Hans Westerbeek  2
Affiliations

Five-Year Changes in Community-Level Sport Participation, and the Role of Gender Strategies

Rochelle Eime et al. Front Sports Act Living. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: The rate of participation in community-based sport by boys and men has been double that of girls and women. Contributing to this is the fact that some sports have been traditionally male-only or at least very male-dominated. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate changes in participation in sport by sex and age across 10 major sports in Australia over a 4-year period. In conjunction with the analysis of participation trends, the gender strategies that were developed and implemented during this time are reviewed. Methods: This study encompassed all sport participants registered with one of 10 State Sporting Associations in Victoria, Australia in 2015 and in 2019. Participation rates by region, age and sex were calculated. State sport and health policies relating to female participation in sport were reviewed. Results: There were 749,037 registrations in 2015 and 868,266 in 2019. A comparison between 2015 and 2019 shows increases in participation for women and girls across all age groups (4-84 years), and highest increases for those aged 4 (6.6%) and 5-9 (4.7%). For boys there was a considerable decrease in participation for those aged 5-9 years (-3.8%). Discussion: This study provides evidence that whilst participation in sport is still dominated by males, the gap might be gradually closing and this is in line with recent strategies and investments into sport and wider cultural developments in society. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Keywords: community; policy; sport; sports club; women.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overall participation rates in 10 sports: 2015 and 2019, Victoria: by age.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Participation rates in 10 sports, 2019, Victoria: by sex and age.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Participation rates, 2019: by region, sex, and age. (A) Metropolitan—Growth, (B) Metropolitan—Other, (C) Regional—Growth, and (D) Regional—Other.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Adriaanse J. (2016). Gender diversity in the governance of sport associations: the Sydney Scoreboard Global Index of Participation. J. Busin. Ethics 137, 149–160. 10.1007/s10551-015-2550-3 - DOI
    1. Australian Bureau of Statistics (2017a). Population by Age and Sex, Regions of Australia, C.N. 3235.0, Editor. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.
    1. Australian Bureau of Statistics (2017b). Population Estimates by Age, and Sex, Regions of Australia.
    1. Australian Government D.o.H. Girls Make Your Move. Available online at: https://campaigns.health.gov.au/girlsmove (cited June 3 2020).
    1. Australian Sports Commission (2016). Ausplay. Particicipation data for the sport sector, in Summar of Key National Findings October 2015 to September 2016 Data, (Canberra, ACT: ) 17.