News GENDER QUOTA

GENDER QUOTA

New gender quota for the IODA Continentals

At the last AGM in Malaysia, a new proportion of sailors of different gender in a team attending a continental event was approved. The goal of this amendment was to make the quota less 'steep': the former quota had no restrictions for teams of 9 or fewer sailors but required a minimum of 3 sailors of the opposite gender for teams of 10 or more sailors, leaving no 'middle' point for members who wanted to register e.g. 9 boys and 1 girl. This was clearly opposite to the purpose of the rule, which was to bring more girls into sailing at IODA events.

The new condition 9.2 of the Conditions for IODA Continental Championships states that for teams of 7 or fewer sailors there is no gender restriction and for teams of 8 or more sailors the minimum number of sailors of the opposite gender shall be:

Condition 9.2 apply only for the North and South American championships, as the other continentals have more severe requirements. However, it won't apply for the South Americans in 2011 because the deadline for registration was December 15 2010 and many members had selected their teams before the AGM.