ACE Honors Women’s Equality Day

by American Council on Exercise
on August 25, 2023

In the United States, Women’s Equality Day is celebrated on August 26th each year to commemorate the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which gave women the right to vote. Each year, the President of the United States offers a Proclamation to celebrate the Women’s Equality Day. This year, this Proclamation states, “…we honor the pioneering suffragists who persisted through decades of struggle to finally win American women the right to vote, and we celebrate the advocates and everyday heroes who have continued the long march for equality ever since. On this day, we recommit to delivering a better future for all of America’s daughters and for our Nation.”

In addition, the President’s Proclamation reads, “I also signed an Executive Order to eliminate discriminatory pay practices and advance pay equity.” In the spirit of these commitments, ACE has joined hundreds of other California-based companies and organizations in supporting the California Equal Pay Pledge, which strives to “turn the strongest equal pay laws in the nation into the smallest pay gap in the nation.”

This decision reflects ACE’s ongoing dedication to promoting equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and advancing gender equity within the health and fitness sector. As part of its commitment to the Equal Pay Pledge, ACE will undertake the following actions to live up to its promise:

Perform annual gender pay analysis to identify and address any existing disparities.
Continue evaluation of internal processes and practices for advancement opportunities as part of the ACE EDI strategic goals.
Support and grow the Women In Fitness Association (WIFA) to further advance opportunities for women in the health and fitness industry by delivering all WIFA programs, including WIFA L.E.A.D., Writer’s Academy and Speaker’s Academy, in addition to offering WIFA Growth Grants.

A Call to Action

By taking the steps outlined above, ACE aims to lead by example and inspire positive change throughout the health and fitness community. It is our hope that this may serve as a call to action to the fitness industry at large to work collaboratively to overcome the following troubling statistics:

Women make up 58% of the recreation and fitness workforce, but only earn 86 cents to every dollar earned by men in the same occupational role.
Women only make up 29% of senior leadership positions globally.

ACE encourages business executives, facility owners and other industry leaders to take a critical and honest look at their workforce through a gender equity lens and make the necessary changes to be transparent and address any disparities in terms of both pay and opportunity. ACE understands that this is not a one-time task and requires ongoing efforts, but maintains a steadfast commitment to do the work necessary to level the playing field in the fitness industry—and that requires leaders in all sectors of the industry to get on board and collaborate to drive meaningful and lasting change.