IAF Insults U.S. Aikidoka with Gender Group Pick

The International Aikido Federation recently announced that Sharon Dominguez of the United States Aikido Federation had been named as the sole representative of the United States in the IAF’s Gender Balance Working Group.

This appointment is an insult to all U.S. Aikidoka with genuine concern about gender issues and needs to be exposed as a tone-deaf and uninformed mistake that further threatens the credibility of the International Aikido Federation among forward-looking members of the U.S. Aikido community.  

Dominguez is a board member of New York Aikikai who stood by *in person* in 2019 when a woman was kicked out of New York Aikikai, the USAF's flagship dojo, for bringing up issues of gender representation. She has been personally complicit in the punishment and ostracism of several other women who brought attention to gender issues in the USAF. She also represents an organization that in its 56-year history has never had a woman on its Technical Committee, the group that de facto makes all the decisions related to policy and operations in the United States Aikido Federation. Women have historically held only administrative roles in the USAF and teach a tiny percentage of seminars and classes at USAF events.

Most importantly, the USAF and its leader, Yoshimitsu Yamada, took direct action in 2019 to expel, harass and defame women who circulated a respectful petition calling for attention to the drastic gender imbalances in the leadership and ranks of the USAF. This action resulted in more than a dozen dojos leaving the USAF in protest, with many more expressing disgust at the actions of the leadership. Is the International Aikido Federation ignorant of this very recent history? 

That a representative of an organization that has taken an active role in punishing and expelling women for merely bringing up issues of gender has been elevated to a visible position in the IAF gender group is an insult to all women practicing Aikido in the United States, and worldwide. This decision calls into question the IAF's understanding of gender issues in Aikido on the most basic level.

Not only is this decision disrespectful to the many women in leadership positions in U.S. Aikido organizations, it is also downright counterproductive. The USAF's actions toward gender issues over decades have consisted of expulsion, suppression, punishment and bullying. Rampant sexual harassment and serious allegations of sexual assault have been festering unaddressed in the USAF for years. The USAF’s response has been to ignore women and their allies who bring up these issues and consequently punish them by denying rank and teaching opportunities.

Will the USAF's approach now become the International Aikido Federations's policy on gender issues? What are Aikidoka across the world supposed to learn from this appointment – that gender issues are best dealt with by ignoring and suppressing them? Such an attitude poses a real threat to the viability of Aikido worldwide as society becomes less tolerant of bullying and discrimination.

Another notable example of the USAF's problematic record on gender issues is apparent in the timing of its appointment of Dominguez. The United States Aikido Federation was asked in 2016 to name one of its members to the IAF Gender Balance Working Group to represent the United States and chose not to do so until several weeks ago, almost halfway through 2020. According to informed sources, no women in the USAF ranks were deemed "qualified" to take the role by USAF leadership. The United States has had no voice in this IAF group for *more than four years* due to inaction by the USAF. The USAF’s sudden interest in gender issues in the wake of its shameful actions toward its female members in 2019 is transparently self-serving and a public-relations move, nothing more. Does the IAF's gender group serve only to whitewash the disgraceful actions of the USAF?

Women hold meaningful leadership positions in many other Hombu-affiliated U.S. organizations including the Aikido Schools of Ueshiba, Birankai North America, Aikido Shimbokukai and the California Aikido Association. Why were none of these women – many of whom are much more senior and accomplished than Dominguez – considered for this role?

The IAF is making a mockery of the genuine issues around gender in Aikido with the naming of Dominguez to this role representing the United States. Her appointment  can only widen the divisions between Hombu and the U.S. Aikido community. We ask that the IAF reconsider its policy and make a meaningful nomination to the IAF Gender Balance Working Group. The most qualified people should be representing the United States in the International Aikido Federation on this vitally important topic, not the most politically expedient.