Sport is one of the most powerful platforms for promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls. As the leader of the Olympic Movement, the IOC has an important responsibility to take action when it comes to gender equality – a basic human right of profound importance and a Fundamental Principle of the Olympic Charter.
Great progress has been made in promoting gender equality in terms of balancing the total number of athletes participating at the Games, offering leadership development, advocacy and awareness campaigns, and more recently appointing more women to leadership roles within the administration and governance.
Many Olympic Movement stakeholders have also implemented significant gender equality initiatives so that girls and women around the world are being given greater access and the opportunity to participate in sport. However, there are still many challenges to be addressed.
Olympic Agenda 2020, the strategic roadmap for the Olympic Movement, reaffirmed the commitment and priority of gender balance, and the IOC Gender Equality Review Project with its 25 recommendations launched in March 2018 is a tangible outcome of this commitment. With an emphasis on taking action, the aim of the Project is to provide a solutions-based approach to achieving gender equality on and off the field of play, sooner, rather than later.
