Sky, along with Public First, have released a new report titled ‘Game Changer: How Sport Gives Every Girl A Better Chance’.
The report covers multiple angles relating to girls participation in sport, the longer term impacts, and recommendations to level the playing field.
Media reports focused on the claim “Girls who play after-school sport in the UK 50% more likely to later get top jobs” (The Guardian).
We should not infer that the link between sport at school and future career success means that one is the sole cause of the other. There are a lot of factors which influence careers.
Selected findings from the report include:
- Working women who played extracurricular sports as a child were 50% more likely to be in a senior professional role as an adult. The number of hours spent playing sport as a child proves to be as big an indicator of an adult’s future seniority at work as having a university degree.
- Sports clearly plays a vital role in helping young people grow into more capable, confident adults. If girls disproportionately miss out on these formative experiences, they miss out on the long-term benefits.
- Getting a physically inactive 18-year-old woman involved in sport generates a lifetime benefit of £30k to the UK economy per person. Closing the participation gap between men and women could deliver £570 million of productivity gains per year, alongside £73 million of savings to the NHS.