Gender equality in technical officiating in sport with the accent on judging, was the topic of IOC Gender equality webinar series on which, among more than 300 participants, WAKO Women in Sport Committee members have participated in on 14th March.
Fruitful lecturing and examples of good practice from the International Surfing Federation and World Taekwondo Federation about equality and equity in technical officiating and leadership in sport federations, put this subject at the high priority list of the world sport.
Using ROLE-models and ambassadors are the safest ways to show it is possible women to improve and get advance in their carrier. Development of women judges around the world in today’s Covid-19 environment gave us benefits we didn’t expect: webinars worldvide and educational seminars with sharing best practices with carring out statistics and exact measurings of the success.
The opened question was the support given to the former athletes to be back to sport they love now as technical officials, encouraging establishement the Women in sport awards, open courses and promoting the ambassadors of sport who represent that everything is possible.
Five focuses of the international sport organizations today are on: participation, leadership, safe sport, ballance portrayal in medias and fundings.
What is the biggest barrier faced by women in technical official roles?
Lack of opportunity to develop, Two (three) careers, Prejudice, Demanding requirements at engagement and Lack of role models were the answers given to stress the variety of the reasons women are facing in establishing their position in sport.
It was also stressed that diverse ethnic background of the women referees which gives continental variety is crucial for harmonized development.
The question has developed from:
Why don’t we have more women in technical officiating in sport,
to:
Why don’t we have more women among the best judges officiating in the worlds sport?
