Female Coaches Initiatives that drive the ITF Gender Equality Advantage All Strategy

Abstract

In 2021, the Development department of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) launched the Female Coaches Network (FCN) to drive the ITF’s Advantage All Gender Equality Strategy in coaching. The FCN includes education initiatives to recruit, certify, and retain female coaches towards achieving the goal of having 30% of coaches globally being female by 2024. Since the launch of the FCN there have been positive outcomes, with female coaches benefitting from ITF education initiatives to become more empowered in their roles, enhancing their certifications as well has having the opportunity to network with female coaches from different parts of the world. Seven (7) women have taken part in the Women in Sport High-Performance (WISH) programme supported by the IOC, 130 female coaches from the around the world participated in the FCN webinar in 2021, and in 2022 that number increased to 179. At the ITF World Coaches Conference (WCC), in 2019, 24% of speakers were female, and in 2023, 38% of speakers were female. In addition, through the FCN, valuable data has been collected to serve as a baseline for further research, and to develop strategies, and programmes to attract and retain more women in tennis coaching.