World Athletics Gender Leadership Taskforce

 

The World Athletics Gender Leadership Taskforce was established with a remit to provide oversight of the gender leadership strategy to mainstream equity and ensure sustainable leadership pathways for women. Its main focus areas are building the pipeline of talented and empowered female administrators, coaches and technical officials, and driving gender leadership programmes to ensure the 50:50 gender targets for the World Athletics Council are met by 2027. 

Vision statement 

To strengthen, grow and sustain an environment for female leaders, to create access and opportunities, and to contribute to the growth of World Athletics.

 

Introduction

World Athletics aims to be a role model organisation, a recognised voice and champion of gender inclusivity and equity at all levels of the sport. Athletics has gender parity in elite participation on the field of play and World Athletics aspires to reflect this off the field by empowering women and girls with equality of opportunity in leadership and decision-making roles across all facets of the sport. This is not about advocating for one group over another but achieving a more balanced representation across the World Athletics family.

 

Background 

A key principle of World Athletics governance and integrity reforms in 2016 was to ensure diversity and achieve gender equality through the empowerment of women and girls, both on and off the field of play. To help achieve this, a Gender Leadership Taskforce (GLT) was established in 2017 with a mandate to:

• Ensure a robust pipeline of female leaders throughout athletics

• Ensure the mandated gender provisions regarding the World Athletics Constitution were filled (50% in 2027 on Council and phased through 2019 and 2023)

As outlined above, there has been notable progress under the guidance of the GLT, but a focus remains on 2027 and driving forward the strategies to address the inequalities in gender representation and ensure gender equity is fully embedded across all levels of the sport. 

The GLT is currently comprised of the following nine members:

 

Stephanie Hightower (USA)

Chair

Ximena Restrepo (COL)

First female Vice President at World Athletics in 2019

Beatrice Ayikoru (UGA)

World Athletics Council Member, Uganda Athletics Federation

Jaya Mylvaganam (SGP)

Area International Starter

Annette Purvis (NZL)

World Athletics Council Member

Nuala Walsh (IRL)

Behavioural scientist, former FTSE 100 Chief Marketing Officer

Adille Sumariwalla (IND)

Vice President at World Athletics

Drumeco Archer (BAH)

Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations President

Karin Torneklint (SWE)

Former (and first female) Head Coach for the Swedish Athletics Federation, now a Sponsorship Coordinator

 

Responsibilities of the GLT:

• Oversee the strategy for gender equity

• Continue to raise awareness and promote gender equity with supporting programmes

• Sustain and grow the pipeline of female leaders for decision making positions throughout athletics

• Increase gender equity across administration, referees and coaches

• Raise awareness and support campaigns where gender related abuse issues impact the athletics community

• Strengthen gender equity through improved governance, frameworks and processes

• Develop key gender equity measures and initiatives aligned with the World Plan

• Monitor progress and feedback through data-led insights