The Gender Play Gap: Number of women taking up sport remains stagnant

The number of women and girls registered as members of sports clubs in Scotland remains largely stagnant, according to new figures.

Sport Scotland data shows participation among females has seen little change in recent years, despite steep increases in the number of young girls playing football.

In 2016-17, 568,348 men and boys were registered members of clubs, compared to 205,366 women and girls. In 2022-23, those figures were 560,825 and 215,117.

Maureen McGonigle, the founder of Scottish Women in Sport, told Scotland Tonight she was surprised by the figures, but suggested that more needs to be done to reach women who don’t feel welcome in sport.

She said: “I think it’s difficult. There’s been a lot of investment. There’s been a lot of good programmes put together, but the problem is, it’s quite insular in sport.

“You want to bring people in that are not there at the moment. That’s not a criticism, that’s a fact. I think what I would like to see is more marketing, to get it out to the youngsters.”

Maureen, who has worked in sports for 40 years, and was the first female council member of the Scottish FA, said more needs to be done to break down the barriers women and girls face in accessing sports.

“People are understanding that you don’t have to wear white to play cricket, you don’t have to wear white to play judo.

“And I think also for young women coming from an ethnic background, we’re quite happy to take hijabs and make sure they’re covered, so we are making inroads to some of the problems that stop young women. But it then goes back to getting the word out to those that don’t participate.”

One sport that has been able to attract a lot of new players, however, is football.

In 2016-17, 4,265 girls and women were registered at Scottish football clubs.

By 2023, that had risen to 17,474.

Drumchapel United set up a female system eight years ago, and now has 200 members.

Coach Rosie Brown believes the increasing visibility of the women’s game in Scotland has played an important role in encouraging more girls to pick it up.

Rosie explained: “I think it’s important to try and get girls to these games so we do a lot, we take some of the girls to go see Scotland women playing through the SWF. They look up to all these players.

“They get absolutely buzzing, and they want to then progress and they want to become footballers when they’re older, or sometimes coaches, which is absolutely fantastic.”

Player Mia, aged 13, agreed: “We all speak about it. We definitely look up to them. There are a lot more women’s teams out there that are starting to realise that a lot of girls do want to actually play – it’s not just boys.”

Watch the full report, Scotland Tonight: The Gender Play Gap, at 8:30pm on STV and the STV Player.