In March the AETF Women Committee published an online survey open to all female Taekwon-Do practitioners living in Europe. As newly installed committee it was one way to find out what the women in Europe want and expect from the committee.

Based on these results, the planning for the upcoming 4 years can be adapted and finetuned.

Only 23 women took the time to fill in the survey, which is a sign that there’s still a lot of work to do concerning the visibility of the committee.

Amongst the participants, there were 5 coloured belts, 4 first degrees, 2 second degrees, 3 third degrees, 4 fourth degrees, 4 sixth° degrees and one Master. Participating countries: UK (8 participants), Romania (4), Ireland (3), Belgium (2), Finland, France, Italy, Russia, Sweden and The Netherlands.

86,4% of the participants know the AETF.
95,7% of the participants thinks it was a good idea to establish a Women Committee in Europe and 86,4% thinks it’s also necessary to have a national Women Committee in their own country.

One of the questions was about the ITF Adult Harassement Policy, adopted by the ITF Board in May 2021 and published on the ITF website. One of the first articles by the AETF Women Committee on the AETF website was about this policy. It seems we still have some work in drawing the attention of our members to the policy, as 43,5% of the participants was not aware of the existence of this policy. 21,7% of the participants knows about the policy, but is not sure where to find it while only 34,8% of our respondents knows where the policy is published.

On the questions concerning the expectations from the AETF Women Committee of the respondents, the needs and wants, the answers were quite similar:

* more visibility of women in Taekwon-Do,

* represent women and be their voice,

* strive for equal treatment, regardless of gender,

* organise events for female practitioners and have information on certain topics like e.g. why women stop with Taekwon-Do, Taekwon-Do and pregnancy etc.,

* encourage female practitioners to continue their journey in Taekwon-Do,

* attract more women in Taekwon-Do,

* help to have more women in the Board, the committees, but also in National Associations,

* create platforms to share experiences with women from different countries,

* amical competitions,

* etc.

The AETF Women Committee is very gratefull fort his input. We will work with these numbers and suggestions, and hope to represent the women in Europe in the best possible way.

The AETF Women Committee