Demonstration in the public sphere of the leadership’s commitment to gender equality through written documents/publications of the organisation (i.e. a report on gender equality targets and progress in the organisation’s Annual Report).
The European Hockey Federation led a content campaign with the hashtag “#EquallyAmazing” complementing the unveiling of their Gender Balance Charter to increase participation and prominence. The campaign has supporters from all facets of the sport, including athletes, coaches, umpires, young panellists, and board members, who share the same ideals as the campaign in advancing gender equality and bringing about change in the sport.
Promote women in leadership and decision-making positions as role models whilst using content which highlights diversity and avoids the connotation of women as an “exception” in leadership and governance roles.
The Czech Olympic Committee annually organises the Věra Čáslavská Prize. This award is designed to recognise women role models in sport; accordingly, one woman receives the award each year not only for her results in sport but also for her ability to share the Olympic values with others. Nominees are proposed on an annual basis by the Commission of Equal Opportunities in Sport of the Czech Olympic Committee.
Aligned with the IOC Portrayal Guidelines, promote gender-equal portrayal practices and encourage national media to do the same. Accordingly, provide ad-hoc training for media and communication roles regarding gender-equal portrayal practices and biases in women’s media coverage, both with respect to text and images.
The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) approved the Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (GEDI) Action Plan 2025, which takes concrete steps to start closing gender equality, diversity and12 inclusion gaps within the organization. The GEDI Action Plan 2025 is aligned with the principles of the UN Guidelines for Gender-Responsive Sports Organizations, as well as with the IOC guidelines. It includes six main “Strategic Goals”, namely, to promote women’s leadership and gender equality in governance models; to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls in and through sports; to close the gap in investment in women’s sports and promote equal economic opportunities for women and girls; to promote women’s equal participation and bias-free representation in sports media, including communications to eliminate harmful gender stereotypes and to promote positive role models; to support equal opportunities for girls in sports, physical activity, and physical education; to monitor and publicly report on progress on an annual basis.
Adopt gender-conscious language for internal and external communication.
DOSB adopted Gender Neutral Language Recommendations. The Executive Board of the DOSB decided on 31 August 2021 to extend the current regulation in the DOSB regarding gender-conscious language from 2019 and to support a uniform application in the DOSB. The regulations in this guideline are also intended to provide assistance and orientation for the member organisations.
Incentive stakeholders to engage and promote gender equality through prestige (i.e. awards).
Develop maternity and parental leave policies, as well as opportunities for flexible work (i.e. allow home-working and flexible start and finish times, adapt meeting times and the mode of delivery – online vs. in-person meetings).
The Rugby Football Union (RFU) in England and the Rugby Players’ Association (RPA) introduced a “Maternity, Pregnant parent & Adoption leave Policy” for contracted England Women´s players. The goal of the Policy is to develop guidelines to help the athlete during pregnancy and to create a friendly atmosphere for contractual players after they have children. The Policy also offers chances for players who are going on maternity leave (26 weeks at full pay) to transition into other safe jobs within the rugby network, such as community coach, until the player goes on maternity leave. If contracts are renegotiated or extended at any time when a player is pregnant or on maternity leave, they will include the player in all conversations and have their contract extended for a minimum of 12 months. Any player who is returning to the team after maternity leave and has been chosen to participate in the programme within 12 months of giving birth or adopted and is required to travel for training camps may bring their child along with a support person to help with the care and supervision of the child.
Design/implement anti-harassment policies; accordingly, organise ad-hoc activities to inform staff, board members and all relevant stakeholders regarding the policy and everyone’s responsibility to adhere to it.
World Triathlon has designed, implemented and disseminated to its entire community the Safeguarding and Anti-Harassment Policy in 2021. Accordingly, the anti-harassment policy was openly disseminated in 10 different languages through a statement which mentioned: “We want to share with all the community that World Triathlon has in place a Safeguarding and Anti-harassment policy and mechanisms so that anyone, from anywhere, that is in this kind of situation can seek help (…) All information and reports will be kept absolutely confidential”. Accordingly, the Report Form to fill in anonymously was made available in the statement with the relevant resources (i.e. Safeguarding and Anti-Harassment Policy and Guidelines for National Federation). Besides, World Triathlon has foreseen an ad hoc awareness campaign to inform staff, board members and all relevant stakeholders regarding the policy and relevant resources.
The leadership should formally showcase its commitment to gender equality by including it amongst the organisation’s values; accordingly, the organisation’s responsibility and targets to implement real measures to promote gender equality.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) showcased its commitment publicly through the “I pledge campaign” ahead of Internal Women’s Day in 2022. Notably, the ITF sent a letter to invite all Presidents of the National and Regional Associations to pledge their support and advocate for women. The “I pledge campaign” is designed to encourage, advocate and promote women’s participation in elections and decision-making roles. And yet, this is an additional tangible commitment of the ITF to gender equality which is also shown through its ITF 2024 strategic agenda, Advantage All strategy and its adherence to the HeForShe movement.
Involve all genders to cooperate unanimously to promote women’s rights and gender equality principles. Accordingly, appoint “gender diversity champions – ambassadors” from the organisation’s staff, athletes, and external stakeholders.
In 2021, IBU launched the Athlete Ambassador programme involving 18 biathletes representing 15 different countries to help raise awareness, educate, and support the aims of Biathlon in three key areas of development: sustainability, gender equality and integrity. Accordingly, 6 athletes from 5 countries have been nominated as Gender Ambassadors and committed to using their voices to promote positive change in gender equality whilst playing an active part in various IBU activities, such as seminars, conferences, educational programmes and communication campaigns.
Generate new ideas/programmes to promote cohesion and cooperation between different genders and roles within the organisation.
Avoid activities which reinforce informal networks/alliances and replicate the status quo of unequal representations of genders in the leadership and decision-making of sports organisations.
Promote and implement grassroots projects which encourage equal access to sports for all genders and offer opportunities for delivering education in and through sports concerning leadership and decision-making positions in sports organisations.
Allocate resources to regularly promote programmes/activities which support the implementation of the gender equality action plan/strategy to reach the desired targets in gender equality.
IBU’s Gender Equality Strategy 2021 – 2024 (p.4) explicitly states that IBU understands the notion of gender equality “as a process of allocating resources, opportunities, and entitlements equitably to both females and males in order to ensure that the sport of biathlon is free of gender discrimination”. Accordingly, IBU’s Gender Equality Strategy 2021 – 2024 (p. 18) recognises that for the strategy to be duly implemented “it is imperative to use all available resources to follow up this process”.
Gather the participants’ opinions on the efficiency and impact of the workshops they have been taking part in.
Collect data on the impact of gender-focused initiatives on personnel’s well-being.
Compare the way men and women feel about speaking during meetings (whether they feel confident, apprehensive, listened to and considered...).
Assess the needs and interests in different topics (i.e. leadership, sustainability, gender equality, funding...) expressed by both men and women regarding training programmes.
Review content language and visuals used in the organisation’s media channels to ensure compliance with non-stereotyped and gender-neutral communication.
Determine the frequency at which women express their ideas during meetings.
Determine the frequency at which an idea given by a woman is adopted.
Compare the opportunity for all genders to contribute during meetings.
Compare the share of men and women attendance to workshops or conferences on gender equality, job shadowing programmes, specific training programmes, and measure the impact programmes had on their career (elections, upward mobility, responsibilities evolution...).
Calculate the share of the budget allocated to the Gender Equality commissions and to Gender Equality- related projects.
Calculate the share of women among the 10 highest-paid workers.
Assess the number of employees who participate in training programmes and compare the answers from men and women.
Review web-analytics and related gender-segregated data to record the breakdown of viewers, news and social media posts (e.g. on women in leadership, women sport).
