LONDON: LONDON: The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) confirmed on the occasion of International Women’s Day on Friday that it will appoint its first-ever female vice-president at the IAAF Congress in September 2019.
The development comes as part of widespread reforms adopted by the Congress at the end of 2016, adding minimum gender targets into its constitution to establish parity at all levels in the sport’s governance.
The global governing body is planning to increase woman representation in the IAAF Council from six to seven this year and to 10 by 2023. Female and male members will be equally represented by 2027 whether as council members or in the four vice-president positions.
The IAAF Council established a Gender Leadership Taskforce in 2017 to work alongside its Women’s Committee to develop and organise global and regionally specific programmes to ensure a robust pipeline of eligible female candidates is available for this year’s elections and beyond.
Over the past 12 months, women’s leadership and administration seminars and symposiums have been held in five of the IAAF’s six areas: Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) seminars in Cairo, Dakar and Nairobi; a European Athletics (EA) seminar in Brussels; an Oceania Athletics Association (OAA) seminar in Auckland; a South American Athletics Confederation (CONSUDATLE) symposium in Caracas; and a North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletics Association (NACAC) event in Santo Domingo.
Jakarta will host an Asian Athletics Association (AAA) seminar later this year.
“On International Women’s Day, I’m absolutely delighted to reinforce our commitment to gender balance in the governance structures of our sport,” IAAF President Sebastian Coe said.
“I formed our Gender Leadership Taskforce because I want to encourage more women into our sport and to provide the pathway and programmes to allow them to do that.
“We have equal opportunities for women in competition, and we are committed to having equal opportunities for women in all our governance structures. I have always believed that any organisation is stronger and more effective when women are properly represented at every level.”
Athletics has long been a pioneer both on and off the field of play in creating and ensuring gender equality. On the field, athletics is one of the few sports where men and women compete at the same time in the same arena. At major championships, the sport has an equal number of disciplines for men and women and offers the same prize money.
Off it, women are increasingly taking on leadership and administrative roles. At the IAAF headquarters, 51 percent of the staff are women, and 40 percent of them are in managerial positions.
To commemorate Women’s History Month, over the course of the next three weeks the IAAF’s social media channels will celebrate the achievements of both pioneers and contemporaries in women’s athletics.
