Closing the ‘Gender Exercise Gap’

Written by Acacia Soares - Content Writer at Strength to Strength Mental & Physical Healthcare

UN Women Australia announced that the theme for International Women’s Day 2024 is ‘Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress’. The women-led business Strength To Strength said investing in women is necessary to accelerate progress in equal gender representation within exercise and performance related research. The organisation is working to enhance women’s access to education around the importance and impact of exercise for women in their everyday lives.

Director of Strength To Strength Elise Falloon said that unfortunately in the health and wellbeing space most exercise and performance related research has been published by men for men.

“Too many research papers have a historical gender-neutral lens that actually doesn’t really apply to us women,” Falloon said.

“As women we have our physiology that is so important to acknowledge and bring awareness to, fortunately the last decade there are now many amazing women leading the way in this research space.

“My interest and passion for this has lead my organisation to link with the Femmi Running community as a Run Leader.

“The team at Femmi are passionate about empowering women through movement and education.

“There are now run community groups all over Australia and New Zealand.

“They have recently launched The Femmi App, a free downloadable app to help women track their hormonal cycle, provide informative and expert advice around your cycle and combine that with training.”

According to a paper published in the journal Sports Medicine, female authors are under-represented in strength training, resulting in a lack of female participation.

These researchers located 11 guidelines across 104,251,363 participants.

Within this sample, females only made up 13 per cent of all authors of position stands and consensus statements. Participants for youth guidelines were 69 per cent male and 70 per cent for adults.

Researchers said it is necessary to ensure that our guidelines utilise data from both sexes to inform their recommendations.

Strength To Strength personal trainer, Alison Yates, said investing in female leadership in regard to trainers is important to accelerate progress in expanding female participation within their everyday exercise.

“I just feel that women are more nurturing,” she said.

“I do know that one of my clients used to go to a male trainer, and he was younger, and she couldn't connect with him.

“She goes, ‘he played this really loud music in his gym and you know made these comments.’

“She goes, ‘I didn't like him. He didn't make me feel comfortable.’

“And he was just going through the motions of training her.

“Whereas when I train her, we talk. We talk about everything.”

The ASICS State of Mind study has sparked concern of a ‘gender exercise gap’.

The study reported that globally, women exercise 40 minutes less a week than men on average.

It stated that the more you move, the higher your state of mind score is likely to be. Therefore, men maintain a higher state of mind score than women.

Strength To Strength personal trainer, Naomi Blair said women’s time is usually spent more in caring roles, including unpaid family work.

“Women tend to do more of the mental load at home,” Blair said.

“Even things like, the mum is often thinking about what the kids need for school? What birthday present do I need to buy for the friend on the weekend? Even if you don't have kids, I don't have kids, I'm single, but I'm helping my grandparents and I'm helping my family members.

“I think it's just historical, like patriarchal society.

“That's what is expected of women, we naturally fall into those roles and it's not really expected of men.”

“…women’s physical activity is constrained by their time use in ways that men’s is not.”

The Journal of Health and Social Behavior found that within heterosexual relationships, 34 per cent of coupled men exercise for at least 30 minutes, more than three times per week, compared to 28.6 per cent of coupled women.

The researchers based their findings on the data collected from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey.

“Within households, we find that men’s employment reduces their family work hours but increases family work hours for women,” researchers wrote.

“In contrast, women’s employment has a considerably weaker influence on men’s family work hours; the exchange is not reciprocal.

“Consequently, as family work hours rise, women’s physical activity reduces. The same is true for women’s paid hours—hour for hour, paid or unpaid, women’s physical activity is constrained by their time use in ways that men’s is not.”

Join Strength To Strength on Friday 8th of March to celebrate International Women’s Day by investing in women’s exercise to accelerate progress in women’s wellbeing.

Strength To Strength is collaborating with local run club communities and the local gym to provide an optional run or circuit session, swim and coffee. Runners at all levels are encouraged to join Strength To Strength, the Femmi run community, SSS Run Club and The Coogee Run Club for their 3-5km run option. Non-runners and lifters are encouraged to join First Grade Fitness in their beachside circuit.

This is an inclusive and social event open to all! The event will be held at the North of Maroubra Surf Club at 6 AM.

Falloon said she is excited to bring everyone together to celebrate the day.

“Investing in women’s mental and physical health is about investing in society as a whole,” she said.

“Better outcomes for women mean better outcomes for our communities.”