OUGD505 - SB02 - Minorities in Sport and Women

OUGD505

SB02

Minorities in Sport and Women

participation varies very little for men. Among women, however, females from white backgrounds are also more likely to take part in sport compared to people from Chinese, other and black backgrounds, with a low of 21% for females from Asian backgrounds. (information from the Active People Survey 2012)

Across sport as a whole, 89% of those who take part are from white, and 11% from non-white backgrounds (88% of the English population are from white backgrounds). But this varies in specific sports.

In basketball and cricket, for instance, over a third are from non-white backgrounds; badminton and football also have a higher than average proportion of players from these groups. On the other hand, non-white players make up a small share of cyclists and golfers.

National participation rates for women (39%) were matched or exceeded by women from ‘Black Other’ (45%), ‘Other’ (41%) and Chinese (39%) ethnic groups while women who classified themselves as Black Caribbean (34%), Black African (34%), Indian (31%), and Bangladeshi (19%) had participation rates below the national average for all women.

A large proportion of individuals from all ethnic groups say that they would like to take up a sport in which they currently do not participate.

What sports are people who don't participate most keen to start 

Swimming rates very highly amongst men and women from all ethnic groups as a sport they currently don’t participate in that they would like to, and rates are higher generally for women than men. The levels of ‘frustrated demand’ reach as high as 31% for Black African women and it is amongst women that we see swimming feature the most prominently. Even amongst Asian women the levels of interest in swimming are high with 22% of Indian, 21% of Bangladeshi and 16% of Pakistani women saying they would like to take part in swimming. These levels of interest should be set alongside the relatively low levels of participation in swimming amongst most ethnic groups described earlier. 

Keep fit/aerobics/yoga also rates highly for many ethnic minority groups as a sport they would like to take part in which they currently do not do.

Another sport, which many ethnic minorities do not participate in currently, but say they would like to take part in, is self-defence/martial arts. This applies to men and women with the greatest interest being shown by ‘Black Other’ women (17%), Black African men (12%), Black Caribbean women (12%), Bangladeshi women (11%), Black Caribbean men (10%) and Chinese men (9%). 

" I would like to take part, but currenlty don't" 
The most popular sports that women don't curently take part in, but would like to:
- Swimming
- Keep fit/aerobics/yoga
- self-defence/martial arts.
- Tennis
- Badminton

What prevents ethnic minorities participating in the sports they would like to do?

- ‘Home and family responsibilities’
- ‘work/study demands’
- ‘lack of local facilities’
- ‘lack of money’
- ‘I am lazy/I am too embarrassed’ 

Home and family responsibilities rank particularly high amongst the Indian and Bangladeshi communities

Women are more likely than men to give ‘home and family responsibilities’ for not taking part.