The European Olympic Committees (EOC) is pleased to support European Gender Equality Week 2023 between October 23 and 28.

A European Parliament initiative, this is the third year that the week has been held and sees organisations, including parliamentary committees and National Olympic Committees (NOCs), hold events to address and highlight gender equality issues in their areas. The Olympic Movement has made significant progress towards gender equality and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will feature an equal number of men and women participants.

The highlight of this year’s European Gender Equality Week is the presentation of the Gender Equality Index 2023. This annual index sets out gender equality scores in six different categories: knowledge, money, health, work, power and time. In 2023, it will also address the green transition from a gender equality perspective.

On top of this, the European Council will meet in Brussels at the end of the week to discuss gender equality matters relating to Ukraine, the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 and economy and migration.

The EOC itself remains committed to gender equality and to encouraging it across all of it member NOCs. Currently, eight of the 16 Executive Committee (ExCo) Members are women, as are five of the 11 EOC Commission Chairs, and at the European Games Krakow-Malopolska 2023, 48.5% of athletes competing were women.

ExCo Member and Chair of the Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Commission Ms Annamarie Phelps emphasised the importance of continuing to highlight the issue with work still to be done despite the progress made.

Ms Phelps said: “I am pleased that the European Olympic Committees are once again supporting European Gender Equality Week. The EOC are committed to leading the fight for gender equality across the European Olympic family and we must continue to highlight the inequalities that women are faced with in sport.

“Thanks to the work of our commission and the co-operation with our NOCs across Europe, we have made great progress in many areas over recent years. But this is not enough and there remains a lot of work to be done to ensure that women and young girls are afforded the same opportunities as men and boys both on and off the field.

“I encourage all NOCs to use European Gender Equality Week to focus on the good work being done, but also to reflect on what more they can do to help us reach gender equality.”