For the first time in the European Judo Union history, there will be two women acting in Vice President roles; Catarina RODRIGUES for Sport and Kristiina PEKKOLA for Education.
Rodrigues has been in the position for some months now, and Pekkola more recently. Now within a new cycle, we find out how both feel about the development of judo and the topic of gender equity and how it is fostered within the EJU. Pekkola, also the President for Sweden, already has experience working toward diversity in the Nordic region with great success,
Well from the experience we’ve had in the Nordic countries, we’ve found diversity to be very important. To have role models is encouraging to younger women, to be coaches and leaders, and work within the organisation structure. It is good that the Executive Committee to have different views, we have different experiences and practices, just to be in the room and having dialogue can educate everyone.
Rodrigues, a former international and world medallist, has been on a different journey to her position in the EJU,
Honestly, for a while I was not very sensitive to this matter because all my progression was done in a steady way and I didn’t really have these glasses on for gender equality. I was invited by the National Olympic Committee to be part of Women in Sport commission, and to begin with I wasn’t so in to it, but once you really start to look at it in detail, you see how far we still have to go in this process and it takes not only one or two generations to make a change.
One of the processes to create this change is to have role models. If our female athletes in judo see during events that there are different career options, not just refereeing or coaching, but to be in an official capacity, I think this is important. Of course, not only in these official positions, but we are seeing more women in refereeing and coaching, some leading men’s teams and I think this is important.
We are doing our part and the doing the best in our area which is being recognised, we don’t want to be in this position just because we are women, and in the same breath, I’m happy that there are no barriers preventing qualified women from taking these positions. It is important for judo, and our sport is one that can state has equality, we have the same prize money, the same number of categories.
Author: Thea Cowen