World Flying Disc Federation hosts Gender Equity Workshops during its WUCC 2018

17 July 2018

Around four dozen players, coaches, and organizers came together to discuss awareness and action plans surrounding issues of gender equity during the WFDF 2018 World Ultimate Club Championships (WUCC) this week in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Presented by WFDF’s Women in Sport Commission, headed by Caroline "Caz" Malone of Hong Kong, China, and facilitated by a team from Cadoux Consulting, the gender equity workshops were held over two evenings after the end of the competition day. The first session on Sunday, July 15, titled "Training on Equity Concepts: Gender and Beyond," was designed to increase awareness, capacity for analysis, and provide tools players could bring back to their teams regarding implicit biases in our daily culture and in the sport and how to acknowledge and overcome them. The second session, held on Monday, July 16 and titled "Equity Training for Organizers," focused on equity training for administrators, organizers, coaches, and those with experience with equity concepts. The training addressed how culture, structures, institutions, and interpersonal relations intersect with sexism, racism, and all types of explicit and implicit systems of discrimination when doing organizing, work, with the goal of incorporating this awareness into the decision-making process.

"WFDF is excited to have sponsored these workshops as one of our efforts to promote and pursue equity and equality in flying disc sports," said Robert "Nob" Rauch, WFDF President. "Sport can and does have a positive influence on the advancement of gender equity and equality, overcoming the explicit and implicit barriers that exist in society. We are proud that we are staging our WUCC with total gender equality – 40 men’s and 40 women’s teams, together with 48 mixed teams – and hope to be able to continue to increase the number of women athletes and administrators across our sport."

Attendees over the two days of workshops included players, coaches, administrators and organizers from over a dozen countries, including WFDF’s President Nob Rauch and Athletes’ Commission Chair Ryan Purcell, USA Ultimate CEO Tom Crawford, Ultimate Canada President Rob Langridge, among many others. Cadoux Consulting offers gender, race, and economic equity-focused training, facilitation, coaching, and strategic planning services to individuals, groups, and organizations. It is based out of Baltimore, MD and is headed by Zara Cadoux.

Attendees also benefited from an anti-doping presentation presented by WFDF designed to give attendees a clearer understanding of WFDF’s educational and testing goals and programs.

To see more from the sessions, check out the feature video created by producer Julia Johnson from the event: https://www.facebook.com/worldflyingdisc/videos/1812584788826791/

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