The reasons put forward by witnesses for this difference include lack of female sporting role models, peer pressure and low self-esteem. Evidence from Women in Sport states that girls are much more likely to be self-conscious, and by the time they are 14 to 16 years old, around one in three girls, or 36 per cent, are unhappy with their body image.

Many witnesses highlighted the need to move away from defining sports as male or female. We heard that gender stereotypes start to form at a very early age, with girls being brought up to believe they are not as good at sport as boys. Laura Matthews from Women in Sport told us that this can be very subtle, with phrases like 'You throw like a girl' that very much make girls aware from an early age that they're not as good as boys. And having that kind of thought in your mind really will put girls off from wanting to get involved in sport.

We also heard about the lack of female sporting role models in the media and a lack of coverage of women's sport. According to research carried out by Women in Sport, women's sport makes up 7 per cent of all sports media coverage in the UK. While we acknowledge that there have been improvements, there is still some work to do in this area. We therefore welcome the Welsh Government’s commitment, in response to recommendation 14, that it will work with Sport Wales to support the further development of campaigns such as Our Squad and #WatchHerGo, to encourage wider participation in sports by girls. 

To conclude the opening comments, physical inactivity is a national problem that affects us all. We need effective public health interventions to help to address the issues. However, we can't just rely on public bodies and schools; parents also have an important role to play in influencing their children's physical activity. We welcome the Welsh Government's recognition in the 'Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales' consultation of the need to focus on family orientated approaches, and we urge them to take this forward in the final strategy, with ambitious targets and effective monitoring to ensure tangible outcomes. Because if we don't start taking urgent action now to change attitudes towards physical activity, we are storing up problems for generations to come. Thank you very much.