(CNN) NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wants more women in the league.

Speaking Thursday at the Economic Club of Washington, Silver said he wants women to make up half of all new referees joining the NBA, and he wants teams to hire women as coaches as well.

"It's an area, frankly, where I've acknowledged that I'm not sure how it was that it remained so male-dominated for so long," Silver said of officiating. "Because it's an area of the game where physically, certainly, there's no benefit to being a man, as opposed to a woman, when it comes to refereeing."

Currently there are three female officials in the NBA, and he wants that number to rise.

"The goal is going forward, it should be roughly 50-50 of new officials entering in the league," he said. "Same for coaches, by the way. We have a program, too. There's no reason why women shouldn't be coaching men's basketball."

Read More