Zumba Gold Participant
Zumba Gold Participant at SAGE (Edmonton)
Group of girls mountain biking in the mountains
iskwêwak circle program mountain biking
Girls team playing volleyball
Dinos Women Volleyball Club
Our Vision

We envision a provincial sport, recreation and physical activity system that recognizes equity is fundamental to ensuring women and girls (in all of their diversity) have the opportunity to meaningfully participate, as leaders, coaches, officials, athletes, participants and administrators.

Our Mission

The InMotion Network is an organization that aims to remove barriers for individuals who have been, and continue to be, underserved by our sporting, recreation, and physical activity systems.

 

Our Commitment to Intersectionality

While our focus is on removing barriers for women and girls, we acknowledge that gender is non binary and just one of the many intersecting categories that contribute to exclusion. We have therefore adopted an intersectional approach, meaning all of our organizational activities and policies account for the ways gender intersects with race, class, sexual orientation, (dis)ability, religion, age and other identity markers to create different forms of discrimination and privilege.

Did You Know?

Among girls who have participated in sport, there is a dramatic dropout rate observed with 1 in 3 girls leaving sport by late adolescence. By comparison, the dropout rate for teenage boys (aged 16-18) is only 1 in 10. Sport participation rates for Canadian girls decline steadily from childhood to adolescence with as many as 62% of girls not playing sport at all. (Rally Report, 2020)

Women and girls experience multiple barriers to participation of regular physical activity (cultural/religious constraints, financial limitations, familial restrictions, age, physical ability, opportunities/experience, individual or group perceptions and/or varied peer pressures).

In 2009, Sport Canada through Canadian Heritage introduced Actively Engaged: A Policy on Sport for Women and Girls, this policy provided a renewed direction for the leadership and programs of Canadian Heritage in promoting and developing a strengthened sport system where women and girls are full, active and valued participants and leaders, experiencing quality sport and equitable support. The Canada Sport Policy is set to be renewed in February 2023.

The 2019 Alberta Survey on Physical Activity states that on average 64% of Albertans (as sampled) are sufficiently physically active to receive health benefits. This figure has remained consistent over the last decade. On the surface this shows that 64% of Albertans are sufficiently physically active, attention must be paid to other factors that influence the level of physical activity of women and girls in Alberta.

Three girls curling on the ice.

Age

39% of women 65+ in AB self report 150 minutes of PA per week (2020)

Education

Post-secondary and high school graduates are more likely to be sufficiently physically active

Income

Those with annual incomes below $20,000 are least likely to be sufficiently physically active

Employment

Employed Albertans are more physically active than those who are unemployed

Previous studies have shown that females are less likely to be physically active than males. The InMotion Network provides opportunities for physical activity for women and girls to be made available to all women and girls with dedicated emphasis on those from lower socio-economic levels, new Canadian populations, women and girls from communities with religious/cultural constraints and Indigenous women and girls.

Figure: Data extrapolated from the 2011, 2020 Canadian Census and the December 2013 Statistics Canada Health Profile for Alberta.
* The median after-tax income in 2012 for female lone-parent families was $35,395 clearly under the $39,999 annual income level.
** The 2011 Alberta Survey on Physical Activity indicated that employed Albertans are more physically active than those who are unemployed.
*** In many instances these girls and women do not take part in community or school based activities due to religious and cultural constraints.
**** Instances of chronic diseases related to obesity and lack of physical activity within the Indigenous community are well chronicled.