The Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSFF) has released a report titled It’s Time, which reveals that women’s fitness levels are deteriorating.

The research – sponsored by Scottish Widows – shows that more than 80 per cent of women are not doing enough exercise to benefit their health; women aged 16–24 year olds are half as active as men of the same age group and that low income and black and minority ethnic women take the least exercise.

The WSFF speculates that if these trends continue there will be one and a quarter million fewer women exercising by 2017, putting in jeopardy the government’s target of encouraging two million more people to be active by 2012.

Sue Tibballs, WSFF chief executive, said: “There has been almost no change in the level of women’s physical activity in the UK for the past 20 years and the forecasts show that the situation is getting worse.

“We are facing a real crisis in women’s sport and fitness, which will result in increasing obesity levels, physical and mental health issues and crime and social problems.”

Barriers to women being active are primarily concerned with body image, with one quarter of those interviewed saying they ‘hate the way they look’ when they exercise or play sport, and 90 per cent saying they are under pressure to be thin, with almost half of 25–34 year olds feeling under greater pressure to be thin than healthy.

According to the report, these feelings are compounded by negative past experiences of sport in schools, with almost one quarter of women saying PE put them off sport and 40 per cent of girls as young as seven not wanting to be seen as ‘sporty’.

Tibballs added: “The way that women are portrayed in fashion and the media makes them feel greater pressure to be thin rather than fit, with many women inhibited from exercising because of low body confidence.

“Sport is still seen by some women as unfeminine, and girls’ earliest experiences of sport are often off-putting.”

The government will now use the findings to develop its first national strategy to raise women’s participation in sport and exercise.

Cameron Walker, director of corporate communications for Scottish Widows, said: “We hope that this report will be a significant step towards generating solutions to the challenge of raising women’s participation levels in sport and fitness, improving the lives of women and girls across the UK.”