The 7th IWG World Conference from the 17th-20th May 2018 was held in Gaborone, Botswana. This event is held every four years with the global focus on specific goals and action steps aimed at offering men and women equal opportunities in the sport arena. Over 1000 delegates representing 71 nations provided significant opportunities for interaction and discussions on the conference theme “Determine the future. Be Part of the Change”.
The conference featured 6 plenary sessions and side events that covered various issues and sub themes; being well to play well; safe space: protecting women in sport; tell their story: leveraging media to advocate for women’s sport; welcome and empower all through sport; sport without borders: cross-cultural collaboration; let them lead: changing the leadership landscape of sports. Discussions also focused on the critical need to increase the pace of change in improving opportunities for women in sports coaching.
In these discussions the key link among delegates was the shared question- ‘Where are the women in sports coaching’? Other issues raised indicated an ongoing and significant role for the ICCE, and included:
- The need to create an enabling environment for women roles in sports coaching and leadership.
- The evidential decline of women and girls participation in sport,
- The need to increase the number of women coaches.
- The number of women in coaching is declining year after year and the pendulum weighing toward men in coaching with more men becoming coaches of women’s sports and the number of women becoming coaches in men’s sports is close to zero.
There were a number of workshops that featured examples of good practice in the field of women’s coaching, including projects focused on mentoring programs specifically to support females on their leadership pathway.
New Zealand was selected to lead and deliver the global agenda for the International Working Group (IWG) on Women and Sport secretariat for the next four years (2018-2022) and the 8th World Conference on Women and Sport in 2022.
Our best wishes to Pauline Harrison, ICCE Chair of Women in coaching Working Group, who will provide a significant link for the organization to the planning and preparation of the 2022 IWG conference.
For more information on the event, please click here.
