The International Judo Federation hosted its inaugural Conference on Gender Equity in Baku on 19 September, one day prior to Judo Worlds. The conference was chaired by IJF head of Gender Equity Lisa Allan.
The conference was attended by IJF president Marius Vizer, IJF development director Yamashita Yasuhiro, president of the Croatian Judo Federation Sanda Čorak, member of the Romanian parliament Rozália-Ibolya Biro, president of the Australian Judo Federation Kate Corkery, Akiko Amano from Japan, Yuko Fuji from Brazil, head coach of Kosovo Driton Kuka and his Olympic champion Majlinda Kelmendi, Sabrina Flizmoser from Austria and others, the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza reported.
Sanda Čorak, in his speach, gave some interesting feedback about an IJF Survey conducted in 2017 regarding the position of women in NJFs. Men and women have different historic paths in judo. Men’s judo entered the Olympics in Tokyo (1964), women’s judo in Barcelona (1992). He said that only 52 federations (or 26%) returned the completed questionnaire.
Another important finding was that there is a gap between the share of women as competitors and the share of women in all other positions, especially in leadership positions.
International IJF Referee Akiko Amano talked about her work in Japan and about how to keep women involved in judo. Finding out that many women dropped out after becoming a mother her organization introduced a free day care service during competitions, bringing women back to judo.
Austrian athlete Sabrina Flizmoser, in turn, said that sport empowers girls. While Kate Corkery challenged to IJF with the Creation of the IJF Male Champions of Change and an Annual Progress Reporting that would be publicly and transparently.
