Community Sport and Active Recreation

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for International Relations and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 2:44 pm on 22 May 2019.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Helen Mary Jones Helen Mary Jones Plaid Cymru 2:44, 22 May 2019

I'm sure that the Minister will agree with me that one of the biggest challenges is to encourage women and girls to carry on participating in physical activity, particularly, as he's just said in his response to David Melding, after leaving school age. Amongst that group, women from minority ethnic communities are particularly vulnerable and often particularly excluded. Will the Minister undertake today to have some further discussions with the Minister for equalities to see what more can be done to encourage local authority facilities to actively promote the participation of women and girls from minority communities? I would also, in that context, suggest that there is a continuation of provision of women-only facilities for some activities, such as swimming, because for some women from some of those communities it isn't possible for them culturally to participate when there are men present? I think this is particularly important in the context of providing appropriate changing facilities, as well, since there is an increasing tendency to have open facilities, which, while those might be beneficial for families, may not be suitable for women, particularly women who have particular reasons to protect their bodily privacy.