Metadata
WORK ID: NEFA 22436 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| WOMEN IN SPORT | 1990 | 1990-01-01 |
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Details
Original Format: BetaSP Colour: Colour Sound: Sound Duration: 8 mins 10 secs Credits: Sports Council Genre: Sponsored Subject: Women Sport |
| Summary This sponsored video promotes the policies, aims and actions of the Sports Council for the Northern region with regards to equity for women and sport. Interviews show women talking about the challenges of participating in sport once they have left school or find themselves with child care and domestic responsibilities. |
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Description
This sponsored video promotes the policies, aims and actions of the Sports Council for the Northern region with regards to equity for women and sport. Interviews show women talking about the challenges of participating in sport once they have left school or find themselves with child care and domestic responsibilities.
Title: Sports Council [Logo] Northern Region – Women in Sport
The video begins with a woman standing at a kitchen sink washing drinking glasses. Another woman sits with...
This sponsored video promotes the policies, aims and actions of the Sports Council for the Northern region with regards to equity for women and sport. Interviews show women talking about the challenges of participating in sport once they have left school or find themselves with child care and domestic responsibilities.
Title: Sports Council [Logo] Northern Region – Women in Sport
The video begins with a woman standing at a kitchen sink washing drinking glasses. Another woman sits with young child on her lap, and is at work in an office talking to a colleague.
At a sports hall two women enjoy a game of badminton. Another is exercising on a rowing machine.
A blue coloured picture of women on a running track, has still pictures of international women athletes superimposed on it. These include Kirsty Wade, Christina Cayhill, Diane Bell and Karen Straker.
A man pole vaults in a sports hall as the commentary states that currently more men take part in some sort of sport than women. A woman athlete speaks on camera about these differences in participation. As she continues to speak the film cuts to woman nursing a baby. Another woman continues with the exposition. A group of young girls play a game of netball. Another woman gives her ideas on why women don’t participate as much in sport. An older woman adds her ideas, arguing that women will often put family first rather than find time for sporting activity.
The woman athlete then outlines other barriers to participation in sport. A woman carrying a young girl in her arms, says she doesn’t have any friends who participate in sport. She hadn’t given sport activity much thought apart from the occasional swim at the local baths.
Another women explains that having a friend to go to a venue helps. The film cuts to timecoded footage of two women playing table tennis in a sports hall. She continues that having a friend with her gave her the confidence, after having a child, to do some sort of sports activity.
One of the women seen earlier, advocates the availability of crèche facilities, and she argues that if the media picked up on women in sport and its benefits for the individual that would also help with participation.
The woman who brought a friend to the sports hall is enthusiastic about her experiences as she has been on a trampoline, something she hasn’t done since being at school. The choice of sports to participate in is much greater than she thought.
A group of women take part in a warm up session with a ball. Another change of scene as another group try a climbing wall. Children play in a ‘bin’ full of coloured balls, part of the facilities available in the crèche. A high angle view follows of a sports hall where women are participating in various sports. Another group of women try a number of gym activities such as sit ups and exercise bike routines. A group of women take part in an orienteering run. At an indoor tennis court women practice their tennis skills.
A square window appears showing a Sports Council leaflet which outlines the opportunities offered by sports clubs, leisure centres and village community groups.
The film cuts to a woman on skis coming down a dry ski slope followed by a view of a women’s football team in training. Next two women exercise by jogging along a path in a country park.
A montage of shots show a child in a crèche, women in a community group having a meeting, women in canoes on open water, a woman trampolining, and girls playing netball.
The social activity aspect of leisure centres is emphasised as two women read magazines at a table in a coffee and soft drinks bar.
The film cuts to a swimming pool, then one of the women commentators seen earlier, outlines the obvious physical benefits for participation and the psychological benefits. The other women who have appeared in the film add to those sentiments.
A montage of shots of various sports and activities end the film: swimming, netball, jogging, rowing on a machine, skiing, football, badminton, using a climbing wall, trampolining, squash, floor exercises, tennis, table tennis, volley ball, cycling, weight training, bowls for those with disabilities, snooker for those with disabilities, abseiling and sailing.
Title: (Over picture) Copies of this leaflet are available free from: The Sports Council, Northern Region, Aykley Heads, Durham, DH1 5UU
Context
“Women in Sport” is a promotional video created by the Northern Region Sport Council with the intention of creating more equality for women and their participation in sport. This short video created in 1990, encourages women to join local communities and get involved in finding a sport they find enjoyable. The film which was acquisitioned by McKenzie Media, is rather different in content to the other film that they have acquisitioned titled “Time and Tide”. However, it is a video that...
“Women in Sport” is a promotional video created by the Northern Region Sport Council with the intention of creating more equality for women and their participation in sport. This short video created in 1990, encourages women to join local communities and get involved in finding a sport they find enjoyable. The film which was acquisitioned by McKenzie Media, is rather different in content to the other film that they have acquisitioned titled “Time and Tide”. However, it is a video that similarly was used by the North Tyneside Council which shows that they have a similar intention of promoting and creating awareness of what is happening in the local area.
The attitudes towards women were developing throughout the whole of the 20th century. As the film states, women were finding a new identity within the workplace, as more women than ever were in high managerial roles. Regarding exercise and fitness and the increasing use of media and tv, women were being encouraged to get involved in sport. During the 1980s, exercise is well characterised by aerobic workout videos bought to the public by popular actresses like Jane Fonda who sold over seventeen million copies worldwide. Additionally, the film is significant in representing the growing and liberating attitudes of women and their role in society. Prior to 1990, second-wave feminism and the women’s liberation movement define women wanting to find an identity for themselves and this attitude is continued throughout the century and highlighted in the film. Women’s experience of exercise and fitness was developing and there became a there became n increasing popularity towards sport like gymnastics, swimming and hiking. Thus, the film is representative of the changing trends in society and culture towards exercise, socialising with other women and finding their own identity. The film is used as a promotional video by the Northern Region Sport Council. Consequently, the aim of this, is to get women involved in sport by showing women of all ages and abilities trying different sports and interviewing them to tell the audience of their positive experiences. At the beginning of the film, women are shown in the old traditional sense of the typical housewife, raising families, and taking care of the home. However, it is contrasted by the changing attitudes towards women by the 1990s whereby they are finding their identity within their local communities and in the workplace with many women being in higher managerial roles. There are several interviews with women who share their experiences regarding their involvement in sport and the benefits they have gained from not only exercising but from socialising with other women, making friends and trying sports that they perhaps had never done or not had not done since school. The film contrasts the long-standing and archaic attitudes towards women and how at school they were discouraged to partake in sport to the 1990s whereby women are now advocating the physical and psychological benefits of sport. It is significant however that the promotional film still shows women as primary caregivers to their children. It is mentioned in one of the interviews that women struggle to get involved in sport as at times, it can be challenging to find childcare. Therefore, the film shows that many leisure centres are introducing crèches to still appeal to a wide range of women that can have their children close by and still get involved. Consequently, it is representative of society at the time with the somewhat controversial idea of women having independent lives separate to their kids but the traditional portrayal of women as only mothers still stands. Regardless of this, the film is representative of showing that all women of all abilities and ages can get involved at their local leisure centre and experience the benefits of partaking in a sport that they enjoy. Bibliography "Celebrating 100 Years of 'Keep Fit'". Benenden <https://www.benenden.co.uk/100yrsfitness/> [accessed 12 December 2021] "The Best Celebrity Workout Videos From The '80s And '90s". Itsrosy <https://www.itsrosy.com/The+Best+Celebrity+Workout+Videos+From+The+%2780s+And+%2790s> [accessed 12 December 2021] "Women’s Sport Governance: Merger-Takeovers in the 1990s and beyond". Institute of Historical Research <https://www.history.ac.uk/events/womens-sport-governance-merger-takeovers-1990s-and-beyond> [accessed 12 December 2021] Hall, Harriet. "A comprehensive guide to the feminist waves", Standard.co.uk <https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/international-women-s-day-a-comprehensive-guide-to-the-feminist-waves-a3780436.html> [accessed 12 December 2021] Zweigiger-Bargielowska, Ina. 2014. Women in Twentieth-Century Britain (London: Routledge, Taylor and Francis) |
