Sport England’s ‘This Girl Can’ campaign has teamed up with British Cycling to target the gender gap in cycling participation.

British Cycling’s HSBC UK Breeze campaign is specifically aimed at women and provides hundreds of free rides up and down the country.

It has joined forces with This Girl Can to produce a series of short films and imagery - all in the style of previous This Girl Can activity – as it aims to add to the 250,000 people that it has attracted to cycling since its 2011 launch.

BARRIERS

“This Girl Can is delighted to partner with British Cycling on this project,” said Kate Dale, Sport England’s campaign lead for This Girl Can.

“HSBC UK Breeze is one of the best widely-available activities designed for women, as proven by the huge number of women that attend their casual rides each week.

“This Girl Can is designed to break down the emotional barriers women face when considering exercise.

“One of these emotional barriers is fear of judgement around capability, and HSBC UK Breeze is brilliant at addressing these barriers with friendly and knowledgeable female ride leaders who help attendees to build their confidence and skills.”

The collaboration follows recent research showing that 61% of mums feel guilty about taking time to exercise and that mothers have a greater impact on their children’s future activity levels – partly through setting an example and prioritising exercise in their own lives.

PROGRESS

This new six-week campaign will help to show mothers there is no guilt to be felt by prioritising their own activity and will be visible through a series of targeted social media films and pictorial adverts featuring real women who have all been involved in the HSBC UK Breeze programme.

Faye Downey, British Cycling’s women’s cycling project manager, said: “We have made fantastic progress since the launch of our women’s strategy in narrowing the gender participation gap, however we have always acknowledged that there is still a way to go.

“Therefore, we are constantly looking at innovative ideas and projects to get more women on bikes, and we are excited about this campaign’s potential to introduce HSBC UK Breeze to a new audience and put cycling on the radar of more women.”