World Athletics takes steps towards gender equity in 2023

The global governing body of athletics on Tuesday announced a package plan to further improve gender equity in the sport in 2023, setting the goal to have 40% female representation on the World Athletics Council, including at least one female vice president, reported Xinhua.

According to the blueprint released on its website in celebration of International Women's Day, World Athletics will take a significant number of new steps towards gender equity, which also includes the target of 40% female participants taking its online courses as part of a learning pipeline for future sports administrators.

World Athletics also pledged to expand its research into the representation of female athletes across various media channels.

"I am immensely proud that World Athletics is once again leading the way for gender equity in sport. It was an important part of the reforms we introduced in 2016," said Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics.

"In today's world, it is not enough to provide equal opportunity, we must provide equity. In order to achieve true equity in our sport, it is important that we offer our female athletes, administrators, and officials the tools and environment they need to be empowered to pursue careers at all levels of athletics - be it by setting quotas for female representation on our Council, or providing more flexible learning and development opportunities that better suit women's commitments - we are absolutely dedicated to making our sport equitable and representative for all."

World Athletics plans to increase the number of women on its Council from eight members currently to a minimum of 10 members, including at least one female vice president, at the Council elections in August 2023.

"World Athletics has been sparing no effort to improve gender equity in the sport in recent years, encouraging all our partners and stakeholders to join our campaigns and make new commitments to close the gender gap in athletics," said Wang Nan, one of the female Council members of World Athletics.

"We encourage member federations to send more female athletes and coaches to the World Championships and Olympic Games and provide the learning pathway for them to be better prepared to stand up to the occasions," she added,

"As for the Chinese Athletics Association (CAA), we will actively echo the calling of World Athletics to make our own contribution in improving gender equity in the sport," said Wang, who is also CAA vice president.