ITF women involved in month-long campaign. ITFTKD

As part of the celebration of International Women's Day on 8 March, the ITF joined the global campaign #InspireInclusion. The idea is to help raise awareness of the importance of inclusion and gender equality, and to create environments that ensure women have equal opportunities to participate at all levels of the organisation.

Like many other martial arts, Taekwon-Do has historically been male-dominated. In recent years, important steps have been taken in the ITF to raise awareness of women's achievements in the ITF and to accelerate gender parity. For example, the ITF Women's Committee is actively promoting change in the organisation, several national unions are led by women and the ITF has its first female vice-president since the last ITF election in 2023.

The ITF Women's Committee promoted the #InspireInclusion campaign throughout March 2024 and the results so far have exceeded organisers' expectations. With a total of five continents involved, 19 countries have participated directly through the Committee. 

From Argentina to Bangladesh, from Belgium to Jamaica, from Scotland to Morocco and from Paraguay to Canada, it is a huge demonstration that the ITF is taking forward its policy of defending gender inclusion in the world of taekwondo. In addition, hundreds of members around the world followed the campaign and shared the heart-shaped hand pose on their personal accounts.

The ITF Women's Committee promoted the #InspireInclusion campaign in March 2024. ITFTKD
The ITF Women's Committee promoted the #InspireInclusion campaign in March 2024. ITFTKD

The celebrations were not just take place on social media or on 8 March. Many schools, national federations and women's committees organised highly successful events in their country in the form of training sessions, seminars, demonstrations, talks and even parades that put ITF women centre stage.

These ranged from parades organised by the International Taekwon-Do Federation of Bangladesh, to a special two-part yoga course in Taiwan, to a historic event involving 360 women organised by the Argentinian Women's Committee. The event in Argentina was attended by women ranging in age from 3 to 83, including the highest ranking active woman in the ITF, Grand Master Azucena Zorzon (9th Dan).

ITF members were fully engaged and supportive of the campaign, which the Women's Committee said was a real success, with thousands of likes and hundreds of inspiring comments.  It is particularly encouraging to see that on Instagram, 76% of engagement came from "non-followers." 

Brigitte Morris, chair of the ITF Women's Committee, is "extremely proud of the impact our proposal has had within the ITF community and [is] very grateful to everyone who took part in making it the most successful ITF Women's Committee campaign to date".