International Women’s Day (IWD), observed annually on March 8, serves as both a celebration and a reminder of the continuous pursuit of gender equality across the globe. Each year, the day focuses on empowering women and recognising their invaluable contributions to society.
The IWD 2025 theme ‘March forward for all women and girls’ - calls for action to "unlock equal rights, power, and opportunities for all," particularly highlighting the role of youth, especially young women, who are seen as catalysts for lasting change.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA), which laid the groundwork for advancing women's rights worldwide.
At the Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS), we have a responsibility to play a part in closing gender gaps by focusing on diversifying our high-performance coaching community and increasing opportunities for females to take up coaching roles.
Improving the gender balance in the VIS’ Physical Preparation Department was a key action item in our Gender Equality Action Plan (GEAP) 2022 – something that would take a lot of collective effort to achieve in a typically male dominated field.
“The gender imbalance in S&C (strength and conditioning) is a global industry-wide issue,” said Project Manager for Innovation and Research, and Diversity and Inclusion Group Lead, Sylvie Withers.
“Shifting the dial on gender-balance in S&C was a bold action to commit to as part of our GEAP, but we recognised the opportunity to lead the industry change,” she added.
VIS Physical Preparation Coach, Ben King, is entering his tenth year at the VIS.
He started his career as a physical preparation trainee and has since worked across multiple sport programs including golf, netball, shooting and now hockey.
He also coordinates the traineeship program and is passionate about creating an inclusive, rich and hands-on experience for new trainees.
“Opening career pathways is extremely important to us, so we are really passionate about our role in the industry and opportunities for developing coaches,” said King.
“We run our Traineeship annually, which is distinguished by the level of personal mentorship we provide. VIS trainees are paired with a direct mentor in addition to having access to an extensive physical preparation team. They’re also exposed to the VIS’ inter-disciplinary framework, collaborating with other athlete support roles.”
“A key component of our traineeship outcomes are to have trainees working as career strength and conditioning coaches, who can work in elite sport and have their career take them all over the world.”
“We provide a really high-level educational and practical experience which sends great practitioners out into the world, let alone just within the VIS,” says King.
There are, however, currently far too few female physical preparation coaches operating at the highest level of performance industry wide, despite the even gender-split of university graduates.
The under-representation of female physical preparation coaches in the high-performance environment impacts not only female athletes who are searching for a coach and mentor who they can relate to, but also young women who want to pursue a coaching career.
Women don't pursue physical preparation careers as often as men as they see so few other women working in those jobs, have gender biases limiting career advancement opportunities, and have so few role models fighting those dominant paradigms.
“We could have introduced quotas, but it was important to us to understand the barriers in order to overcome them – one major barrier being a lack of visibility of women who have forged successful careers in the industry,” said Withers.
So, King, Withers and team investigated the barriers and implemented strategies to drive the change they wanted to see - more females in the trainee program.
“It was an area that without a concerted effort to change and promote, and invest, there may be a propensity for status quo,” said King.
Their efforts reaped rewards and shifted the dial at the trainee application and intake stage.
King commented, "Now, two years on from implementing these strategies, 3 or 7 trainees are female - the highest it's ever been."
"We improved our gender balance of applications to nearly 50% male - 50% female (having been closer to 60 male - 40 female) over the last few years and more than double the submissions from female applicants (152% - 17 to 43)," he added.
Adele Boylen successfully completed the traineeship in 2024, and couldn’t speak more highly about her experience at the VIS.
“The biggest takeaway from my time at the VIS was the value of inter-disciplinary teamwork - it was nice to see how different areas of expertise came together to support an athlete.”
“I also liked being exposed to different coaching styles and methodologies, it gave me a broader perspective on effective programming and athlete development,” said Boylen.
However, the most impactful element was the mentorship and support she received.
“I was very fortunate to have two female mentors who both invested so much time into my growth - it definitely improved my technical skills but also boosted my confidence as a coach,” she said.
“My mentors not only demonstrated expertise as very capable coaches, but they were also such great role models, and I really respected the work that they were doing.”
“It was really encouraging seeing women being successful in this field, and there’s definitely an increasing presence of women,” Boylen added.
A large majority (88%) of the department comes through the stunningly successful trainee program and is currently made up of 11 male and 3 female coaches.
“We envisage that as more jobs become available, more of our female trainees will be appointed. The flow on to staff employed has begun but has a way to go and requires continued commitment,” Withers added.
“I’m really proud of the work we’ve been able to do in this area and that the majority of VIS physical preparation staff are former trainees - that shows that the traineeship has consistently been able to uncover top tier talent and has been a strong program for a really long time,” she said.
“In the next five years, we hope to see even more trainees become staff and across the course of their career, become industry leaders,” she added.
The VIS is proud to lead the way in promoting gender equity and is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment – it is also clearly a rich learning ground for young people and developing coaches at the outset of their careers.
A diverse workforce brings innovative ideas, broader perspectives, and stronger collaboration, and we firmly believe that a diverse cohort of highly skilled coaches will help more of our Olympic and Paralympic athletes realise their potential and help the high-performance sporting system to thrive.
