Sports minister urges women to 'take up cheerleading'

The sports and equalities minister has said feminine sports like Zumba and cheerleading should be offered in a bid to narrow the gender gap in sport.

Helen Grant said women should be given "what they want" when it comes to sport and not forced to take part in football or swimming, adding that they can still look "absolutely radiant".

She made the comments to The Daily Telegraph in an interview about how to increase the number of women taking part in sport, highlighting that 1.8 million more men than women play sport regularly.

"[Women] don't have to feel unfeminine," she said."There are some wonderful sports which you can do and perform to a very high level and I think those participating look absolutely radiant and very feminine such as ballet, gymnastics, cheerleading and even roller-skating.

"We really need to take a step back and actually ask women what they want and give it to them."Whether it's a Zumba class or a game of rounders after they've dropped the kids off. That's the approach we need to take - what works for them."