International Women's Day: online conference open to all

Table Tennis will be at the forefront on International Women’s Day, with an online conference to be held on Monday 8th March 2021. Experts will discuss the current status of gender equality and how to use the sport as a tool for female empowerment. The online conference is open to all and includes an open question and answer session.

Gender equality has been on the ITTF agenda since 2003, when the first Women’s Forum took place, but now is the time to exchange ideas with wide-ranging experts in the field and open the discussion to all. Within the world of sport, gender equality is still far from being achieved and table tennis is not the exception to the rule.

Nevertheless, progress has been made in recent years. The establishment of equal prize money for women’s and men’s players at ITTF and WTT hosted events, a female CEO between 2011 - 2017, a gender module within an online administration course, and several actions taken by the High Performance and Development Department are proof of this.

Ms Hajera Kajee, in her position of the ITTF Gender Commissioner since 2013, will open the conference.

UN International Gender Champion and IOC Women in Sports Commission member Mr. Ingmar De Vos will deliver the key speech and open the discussion with his colleague from the International Paralympic Committee, Ms Rita van Driel, IPC Women in Sport Committee Chair and Agitos Foundation President.

Ms Petra Sörling, the only female ITTF EC Vice President and ITTF Foundation’s Board of Trustees Chair will contribute with insights from the ITTF, while two Olympians make the round complete. Nigerian Funke Oshonaike, six-times Olympian is committed to promote gender equality through table tennis and helps those in need in her home country through her Foundation. Also, Peruvian Mónica Liyau established her own Foundation using table tennis as a tool to reduce inequality for children in extreme poverty.

March 2021 is Women’s Month!

The countdown to the next World Table Tennis Day on 6th April has begun. This year’s edition puts girls and women in the spotlight. The so-called motto of #FEMpowerment invites table tennis lovers to celebrate and strengthen female participation in table tennis.

Take part in the journey in this series of online conferences:

3 March, 14:00 CET: Online seminar "Table Tennis At Your Fingertips" #FEMpowering the Table Tennis family" – register here: primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/register/vzqrxvtz

8 March, 12:00 CET: Global workshop "Girls & Women in Sport for All" (in co-operation with TAFISA) – register here: tafisa.org/news/GenderEquityOnlineWorkshop

8 March, 15:00 CET: Online Conference "Gender equality and female empowerment in table tennis" – register here: primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/register/pukvzyap

8 March, 16:00 CET: Weekly Training Lesson "Masters of Skill" – special episode for International Women’s Day 2021

During the month of March, follow the hashtags #FEMpowerment #InspirationalWomen and #FEMCampaign on Twitter at @ITTFFoundation and @ITTFWorld:

Share your FemPose photo by making a strong pose with the hashtags #FEMpowerment and #WorldTableTennisDay.

Get inspired by powerful table tennis women through articles, quotes and pictures.

Stay tuned for a virtual interview series of outstanding women in table tennis which will be released every Friday of the week, following different themes.

Last but not least:

Start organising your event for 2021 #WorldTableTennisDay if you haven’t already done so.

Don’t forget to bring a female friend to table tennis in the coming weeks!

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