WOMEN IN THE OLYMPICC

FACTSHEETWOMEN IN THE OLYMPICCMOVEMENTUPDATE – OCTOBER 2020MISSIONSport is one of the most powerful platforms forpromoting gender equality and empoweringwomen and girls. As the leader of the OlympicMovement, the IOC has an importantresponsibility to take action when it comes togender equality – a basic human right of profoundimportance and a Fundamental Principle of theOlympic Charter.The Olympic Charter states that one of the rolesof the IOC is “to encourage and support thepromotion of women in sport at all levels and inall structures, with a view to implementing theprinciple of equality of men and women” (Rule 2,paragraph 7).The IOC’s commitment extends well beyondbalancing women’s participation in the OlympicGames. The IOC also recognises that genderequality is a critical component of effective sportsadministration, and continues to support thepromotion of women and girls in sport at all levelsand in all structures off the field of play. Greatprogress has been made in appointing women tokey decision-making positions, within both theIOC’s administration and its governing bodies.Olympic Agenda 2020, the strategic roadmap forthe Olympic Movement, reaffirmed thecommitment to and priority of gender equality.Many Olympic Movement stakeholders have s, so that girls and women around theworld are being given greater access to and thechance to participate in sport.In 1994, the International Working Group (IWG)on Women and Sport was established and heldits inaugural World Conference on Women andSport in Brighton (UK). This importantConference gave rise to the BrightonDeclaration, an international treaty to support theongoing development of a fairer and moreequitable system of sport and physical activity.The IOC supported the initiative and became asignatory to the Declaration. The following year,in 1995, the United Nations organised the FourthWorld Conference on Women: Action forEquality, Development and Peace in Beijing(China). The resulting Beijing Declaration andPlatform for Action included for the first time aspecific reference to sport as a tool for genderequality and women’s empowerment.Building on these international developments, in1996 the IOC took the historic step of amendingthe Olympic Charter to include an explicitreference to the IOC’s role in advancing womenin sport for the first time:“The role of the IOC is to lead the promotion ofOlympism in accordance with the OlympicCharter. For that purpose the IOC: ( ) stronglyencourages, by appropriate means, thepromotion of women in sport at all levels and inall structures, particularly in the executivebodies of national and international sportsorganizations with a view to the strict applicationof the principle of equality of men and women.”Olympic Charter, 1996That same year, the IOC also held its first WorldConference on Women and Sport. Theobjectives of these conferences were to:HISTORICAL MILESTONES1.In 1979, the right of women to participate in sportwas formally included in an internationalconvention for the first time, the Convention onthe Elimination of All Forms of Discriminationagainst Women.2.WOMEN IN THE OLYMPICC MOVEMENT / 13 October 20203.create awareness about women’s role insport;assess the progress made in the area ofgender equality in sport; anddefine future priority actions to promotewomen in sport.Following this inaugural Conference, the IOCSession accepted the recommendation to set aPage 1/6

target of at least 10 per cent of women indecision-making positions by 2000, and 20 percent by 2005.From 1996 to 2012, the IOC’s advocacy actionwas supported by the organisation of quadrennialWorld Conferences on Women and Sport. The 5thand last conference was held in Los Angeles in2012.In 2014, under recommendation 11 of OlympicAgenda 2020, the IOC undertook to:1.2.work with the International Federations toachieve 50 per cent female participation inthe Olympic Games and to stimulatewomen’s participation and involvement insport by creating more participation; and,opportunities at the Olympic Games.encourage the inclusion of mixed-genderteam events.In 2016, following the recommendation of theIOC Women in Sport Commission, the IOCExecutive Board (EB) approved a revised targetof 30 per cent for the Olympic Movementconstituents:“Members of the Olympic Movement are advisedto set a minimum target of 30 per cent forwomen’s representation in their governing bodiesby 2020, and to adopt accompanying measuresthat will help them to reach this goal.”Minutes, IOC Executive Board, 8 December 2016IOC Gender Equality Review ProjectIn March 2017, the IOC launched the GenderEquality Review Project with a mandate to reviewthe current state of gender equality in theOlympic Movement and “push gender equalityglobally” with “action-oriented recommendationsfor change”. A joint initiative of the IOC Womenin Sport and Athletes’ commissions, the projectwas led by an 11-member Working Groupchaired by Marisol Casado (IOC Member) andcomposed of IOC Members and representativesof National Olympic Committees (NOCs) andInternational Sports Federations (IFs) from everycontinent. The Working Group undertook acomprehensive review of the state of genderequality throughout the Olympic Movementunder five themes: Sport, Governance, Portrayal,Funding and Human Resources, Monitoring andCommunications. The result was 25 bold andaction-oriented recommendations, approved bythe EB in February 2018, to forge a new path inadvancing gender equality in the sporting arenaand beyond. The IOC is leading theimplementation of the recommendations withsupport from the NOCs and IFs.GENDER EQUALITY IN THE IOCIOC MembersVenezuela’s Flor Isava Fonseca and Finland’sPirjo Häggman were co-opted as the first twofemale IOC members in 1981. As of 25 July2020, 39 out of the 104 (37.5 per cent) active IOCmembers are women.Executive BoardFlor Isava Fonseca was elected as the firstwoman on the EB in 1990. Seven years later,Anita DeFrantz became the first female IOC VicePresident, holding the position from 1997 to2001. Since then, the IOC has had a further twofemale Vice-Presidents: Gunilla Lindberg (20042008) and Nawal El Moutawakel (2012-2016). Asof 17 July 2020, five women are members of theEB (33.3 per cent): Anita DeFrantz (First VicePresident), Nicole Hoevertsz, Kirsty Coventry,Nawal El Moutawakel and Mikaela CojuangcoJaworski.IOC CommissionsAs of May 2020, women chair 11 of the 30 IOCCommissions (36 per cent). In 2020, the IOC hasreached its target for gender balancedparticipation within its commissions, with 47.7 percent of the positions currently held by women (in2013 women held 20 per cent of the positions)IOC Women in Sport CommissionWOMEN IN THE OLYMPICC MOVEMENT / 13 October 2020Page 2/6

Created in 1995, the IOC’s Women and SportWorking Group served as a consultative bodycomposed of representatives of the threeconstituent bodies of the Olympic Movement (theIOC, IFs and NOCs), plus an athleterepresentative and independent members. In2005, the Women and Sport Working Groupbecame a fully-fledged Commission chaired byAnita DeFrantz.Currently chaired by Lydia Nsekera (IOCMember), the IOC’s Women in SportCommission advises the IOC President and theEB on which policies to adopt in order to be acatalyst for positive change in the followingpriority areas:1. Encouraging women’s participation in theOlympic Games and in sport generally;2. Empowering women to have access todecision-making positions in sports;3. Raising awareness on the benefits ofgender equality;4. Providing support to NOCs and IFs;5. Preventing harassment and abuse insport.In 2020, the IOC Women in Sport Commission iscomposed of 33 members, 30 per cent of whomare male, including the Vice-Chair HRH PrinceFeisal Al Hussein (IOC Member). In order toensure that the gender equality agenda isintegrated into all aspects of the IOC’s work,members of the Women in Sport Commissionalso sit on key IOC commissions.IOC AdministrationAs part of its People Management 2020 strategy,a number of policies have been put in place toensure an inclusive and diverse workforce.PartnershipsPartnerships are paramount for the spread ofpositivesocialchangeandgenderempowerment. The IOC policy for women’sempowerment through sport has hipswithsportsWOMEN IN THE OLYMPICC MOVEMENT / 13 October 2020organisations, UN agencies and programmes,NGOs and other members of civil society. InMarch 2020, the IOC joined the UN WomenSports for Generation Equality Initiative toaccelerate progress on a set of commonprinciples and aligned objectives that willharness the power of sport in making genderequality a reality within and through sport. TheIOC is encouraging Olympic Movementstakeholders to follow suit. More information canbe found here.GENDER EQUALITY AT THEOLYMPIC GAMESWomen first took part in the Olympic Games inParis in 1900, four years after the first OlympicGames of the modern era in Athens. Despite thereticence of Pierre de Coubertin, 22 women outof a total of 997 athletes competed in five sports:tennis, sailing, croquet, equestrian and golf. Butonly golf and tennis had women-only events.Female participation has increased steadily sincethen, with women accounting for more than 45per cent of the participants at the 2016 Games inRio (5,176 women out of 11,444 athletes),compared with 23 per cent at the1984 Games inLos Angeles, and just over 13 per cent at the1964 Games in Tokyo. In the last 20 years, theIOC has also increased the number of women’sevents on the Olympic programme, incooperation with the IFs and the OrganisingCommittees. With the addition of women’sboxing, the 2012 Olympic Games in London werethe first in which women competed in every sporton the Olympic programme. Tokyo 2020 will bethe most gender equal yet, with female athletesexpected to account for 48.8 per cent of the total.In March 2020, the EB took two key decisionsrelating to gender equality at the Olympic Games:-All NOCs should be represented by aminimum of one female and one maleathlete at all editions of the OlympicSummer Games, starting with Tokyo 2020;and,Page 3/6