ANOC celebrates International Women’s Day and highlights progress in gender equality
ANOC is proud to celebrate International Women’s Day by highlighting the increase in women in leadership roles at NOCs worldwide over the past 20 years, while acknowledging the steps that still need to be taken.
In 2004, there were just 12 women in President or Secretary General positions across the 206 NOCs. By the end of 2024, this number had risen to 61, demonstrating the significant progress made globally.
Furthermore, on the ANOC Executive Council (EC), 11 of the 31 elected members are female, alongside four of the nine ANOC Commission Chairpersons, who hold Ex-Officio positions on the EC.
ANOC has also seen substantial growth in its female audience across social media platforms following the success of the Olympic Games Paris 2024. For the first time, Paris 2024 featured an equal number of quota sports for male and female athletes, in line with Olympic Agenda 2020+5.
As a result, ANOC has reached a larger female sports fan base, with 47.2% of its potential audience on Facebook and Instagram now female. Women have engaged for twice as long as men on YouTube, while 39% of viewers on ANOC.tv were female.
In addition, during Paris 2024, 41% of athletes who visited the ANOC.tv studio to record content for their NOCs were women.
Secretary General Gunilla Lindberg said:
“International Women’s Day is an important occasion to celebrate the progress made in gender equality while recognising the work still ahead. I am delighted to be joined by 10 outstanding female leaders on the ANOC Executive Council and to have witnessed the increase in women in leadership positions across NOCs over the past two decades.
“Furthermore, it’s crucial that we continue to engage female sports fans across our social media platforms and connect with the next generation. I am thrilled to see that nearly half of our social media audience is female, and the impressive level of engagement on ANOC.tv and YouTube, particularly following the success of Paris 2024.
“However, we acknowledge that there is still much work to be done, and ANOC is fully committed to advancing gender equality across all areas of its operations and within NOCs.”
