Much is being written and said about women in coaching roles whether involved in male or female sport. If I look back over my coaching career, while things have improved over the last 20 years, there remains much work to be done. Gender equity in the work place outside sports has changed significantly but when it comes to sport, a staunch conservatism and resistance to change remains.
I have written on this topic previously but I wanted to different slant to today's blog post. I will start with a very personal story about women in coaching. Back in the mid 90s, I have been coaching women's soccer for a few years and had moved from club soccer to working with the provincial teams. I had some success and was recognized as a young up and coming coach, specialized in the women's game. These details in themselves are not important to the topic but their relevance which become evident shortly. My wife, having turned 30 and due to injuries, had decided to end her competitive career ( or as it turned out, take a break) and was approached by the head coach of the newly formed girls U15 competitive team, the first girls team within a well known, highly successful club, about being his assistant coach. He was very adamant about wanting to have a younger female assistant working alongside him, and to whom he could leave the team the following season. Her initial season in coaching went well as the team, won their league, provincial cup and placed second at the national club championships. As planned, the coach moved on and my wife was given the role of head coach for the U15 team with a majority of players returning. Right from the start, she faced a scrutiny and treatment that none of her male coaching colleagues were subject too. Her practices times where always allocated after all the boy's teams had theirs. The technical director called her after each game for a recap of her coaching decisions, referees would bypass her during pre-game heading instead to her male assistant coach, parents questioned her decisions with the fathers trying to bully her and ironically, mothers would use the phrase ( you are a female with no kids, you can't understand what it's like to see your daughters not playing) . During training sessions are shared fields, often, the boys team scheduled to practice after her team would start to play on the field well before their schedule start time and when she would approach the coaches to say something, she was dismissed with condescension and snide remarks. The disrespect was both towards her being a female coach ( and young) and the fact her teams was a girls team. And to the points I made above, when her team did win, she faced comments of the sort that her husband must be helping her because "he knew what he was doing." The fact was that I had zero involvement and went to watch games to support her ( and because I was coaching some of her players with the provincial team). In that first season, her team finished second but won the provincial cup, placed second at nationals, and to add to her work, a U13 regional team she assisted with, won the provincial games. At the end of year provincial gala, she was named "elite provincial coach of the year", not female coach of the year but coach of the year. Once again, she faced disrespect as many dismissed her accomplishments and would state her award was based on the federation wanting to be politically correct. She went on to coach an additional year at the club level, and then two more and the provincial level but after continued disrespect, she left the coaching ranks. I am bias of course, but female soccer in our province lost a great coach because of the disrespect of certain peers and the tolerance of this behavior by certain administrators. I would hope that 20 years later, things have improved... but I am not sure to what extent this might be true. Women coaches continue to be markedly underrepresented in leadership roles whether in coaching of administratively when we consider the participation of females in the various sports. In my opinion at a minimum the % of female coaches should match the % of female participants. After all these years, the fact remains that not only does systemic gender bias exist; it is targeted specifically to coaches of women who are female, rather than to all coaches of women’s sports. Not to mention that access to women coaches for males sports remains for all intent and purposely non existent. So how do these gender biases manifest themselves? Men continue to be given more professional advantages than women. It is not just perception but fact that it is easier for men to secure high level jobs, salary increases, promotions and multi-year contracts. As men continue to dominate coaching positions in women’s sports, fewer opportunities exist for women. Quite simply, men have more leverage because they have opportunities for coaching in both men’s and women’s sports. Having more job opportunities also gives them more opportunities to renegotiate current deals and alter current arrangements. Women experience more gender bias on the job: Female coaches also reported being subjected to a different standard than their male counterparts, and believe that management both favors men over women and evaluates them differently. Regarding hiring practices, there is a strong tendency to overlook females with strong personalities because they will be "tough to handle" even though such things are rarely a factor when hiring a male. Another example is the coach- referee interaction, often times male coaches will be significant more disrespectful towards officials, however when a female coach speaks up, referees in general but specifically male ones will expect a female coach to be quiet and passive where it is accepted for the male coaches to question calls. Advocating for fairness or equity when done by female coaches still has higher negative consequences than when a male coach advocates ( even aggressively) for additional resources to be given to their teams. Stories of retaliation against female coaches for speaking up about gender bias or inequities are fairly common and many fear paying a very real price for voicing their concerns; unfair treatment, retaliation or even dismissal. This gender bias has created a culture in which female coaches of women’s sports feel uncomfortable speaking up for themselves and for their athletes, within clubs and athletic departments. My wife was not afraid to and often times, initially it lead to ridicule and sexist comments. As a result, the female coaches tend to be more reserved when offering input and are less involved in the decision-making process. Yes, things have improved from 20 years ago when my wife stepped into the coaching ranks, however, many of the disrespect and bias that existed then, still exists, although often in more subtle ways. I am a male and I can never fully comprehend what female coaches go through, I can't be in their place. However, I make it my responsibility and duty to help anyone of my players who wants to get into coaching and to call out what I consider unacceptable behavior. I am far from perfect, but I attempt to lead by example.
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AuthorAfter many years of coaching at various levels and with different teams, I thought I would share some of my experiences and thoughts about coaching. Archives
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