This is not the first time I write a post about women in coaching roles. It isn't even the second one. I like to describe myself as an advocate for women's sports and women in sport and when I do, that doesn't mean just taking about female athletes and getting them equitable support and breaking down the barriers of gender bias and stereotypes, it covers women in all roles involved with sport. Furthermore, it isn't about women coaching women ( or girls) or being in administrative roles for women's sports, but more women in sport period ( as in gender neutral).
As is true for many serious young athletes, sports have shaped their lives and identities. The experiences that come with sport participation can be very defining for athletes, not male or female athletes, but athletes period. Coaches can be significant influences on athletes of all ages, providing guidance, leadership, and comfort when needed. Some coaches spend years with athletes from the younger ages to the teenage years and into young adulthood. most influential coaches guided her for years. Some coaches can be more influential on youth than teachers. The reality is that for many young athletes, of both genders, there is one common thread that links them all together; they are for the most part male, even in today's societal reality. It may simply be my humble opinion or perception but it seems that the coaching profession falls far behind other areas in terms of gender inequity and barriers to accessing roles. Much attention and worry has been devoted to the decline of female coaches at the more competitive levels as the investment if women's sports has improved over time. As coaching women's teams at the national team, university or other highly competitive levels became more lucrative, men have been seeking these coaching roles and the decision makers , also males, have tended to give it to them over as qualified if not more qualified women. What doesn't often gather notice however is the even greater scarcity of women coaches in youth sports organizations. The individuals in leadership positions for a majority of youth sports remain male. These early—and for many prolonged—experiences with predominantly male leadership can leave lasting impressions on both boys and girls. Given the historical context of youth sports, perhaps the lopsided numbers of male and female coaches makes sense. Early promoters of organized athletics for kids believed that team competitions would help boys develop the critical manly attributes they would need to contribute to an industrial society. Sports would serve as an introduction into this respectable world, with the coach acting as a boy’s first boss. Why so relatively few women decide to coach youth sports teams or even move into more competitive levels is unclear. After all, participation in youth sports is fairly equitable along gender lines and there are women who move onto being qualified to coach, and many are parents themselves. But youth sport remains for the most part a volunteer endeavor, there still would seem to be a divide of team management tasks along gender lines, men typically coach, and women typically serve as “team moms,” organizing the snack schedule, managing logistics, and collecting money for coaches’ gifts, among other administrative work. I personally find it hard to believe that this phenomena can arise what would call traditional roles. I think the lack of women in coaching is more an issue of the decision makers still being predominantly male and therefore creating the environment where women who might otherwise enjoy leading their child’s athletic team are are confronted with barriers which are placed to keep males in coaching roles. Yet the overwhelming majority of male coaches, even the most sympathetic and youth oriented ones, kind has consequences for boys. Boys are denied the ability to see women operate in leadership roles that males most respect. This has deep implications for our society as boys grow into adulthood, work with, and decide whether to empower women. Exposure to female coaches can pay dividends for boys and for society as a whole. The flip side of course is that for girls, the absence of women coaches means a lack of female role models in powerful leadership positions. And same-sex role models matter, particularly for women. Girls can benefit from same-gender role models more acutely than boys. Female role models act as examples of success and the willingness to succeed even with the gender stereotypes and bias and can motivate girls ( and women ) to strive to fight for their place in sports ( and society). Naturally, the lack of female coaches also signals to girls that coaching is not a career option that’s open to them. If the overwhelming majority of coaches they encounter are men, young women would logically conclude that sports and coaching are better left to the males. More generally, girls who see just males in charge of teams may develop the distorted belief that leadership roles are reserved for men—and that aspiring to lead means adopting a masculine style of governance. To be sure, men don’t just manage with punishment and a strict disciplinary approach any more than women lead with hugs and cute words of encouragement. However males and females do have differing styles of leadership, this is a proven fact. There are exemptions to everything of course, but on the whole, my experience has tended to indicate that that women have a more participative, athlete oriented leadership style, while men tend to adopt a top-down, command and control style. Personally and again, this is in general terms, I've found that male and female coaches differed in their ideals and outlook, with women favoring a more balanced approach to explaining their expectations to athletes, more so than male counterparts who simply expected athletes to follow, "just because I am in charge". If female athletes have only male coaches, they’re apt to experience a kind of leadership that can controvert what feels natural to them and insinuate that they lack the faculties to lead. In my work life, I actually encountered a female manager who would yell and scream and use the phrase " do I have to manage like a man to get anything done?", while I myself, have rarely been the type to yell, so I guess I am not the male manager she might comparing herself to. If female athletes have only male coaches, they could also be apt to disengage with sports altogether. I wonder if the scarcity of female coaches at younger levels helps explain why girls still trail the number of boys who start and continue playing, even though more girls on the whole participate in sports today than ever before. By the mid-teens, girls drop out of sports at twice the rate of boys, just at the time when girls stop speaking up and asserting themselves. And non-participation can also have a health consequence. Girls respond well to female coaches, and good coaches keep kids in sports. Thus, the shortage of female coaches has a potential health consequence for those girls who connect better to fellow females, and who opt out or quit when women coaches are absent. For the majority of young girls and boys who will rarely if ever answer to a female head coach, the absence of women leaders in this slice of their lives may feel inconsequential. It’s just sports, after all. With any luck, boys and girls have ample role models of both genders in other places—at home, in school, at work. But athletics can play a huge role in youth and their development towards adulthood. Sports are a window into society, revealing the larger culture’s values and hang-ups. In this regard, it would be strange to think of sports as any different from business or politics, where many more men than women similarly go on to lead. The good news, well slowly, the faces of coaching in sports are looking a lot less familiar these days. As women are making inroads into sports administrative positions, we are seeing changes. There are now some examples of highly male, testosterone heavy professional sports opening doors of females in the coaching ranks. We haven't seen a women being the head coach YET, but examples like the San Antonio Spurs, Sacramento Kings in the NBA, Arizano Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers in the NFL, Andy Murray having Amelie Mauresmo as his coach, are examples of women breaking through, slowly yes but it is happening. In today's reality, athletes will listen to a coach, any coach that they feel respects them and can make them more successful. We have a long way to go but the truth is that there is a growing acceptance that certain long held stereotypes to explain why women can never be successful coaching at the highest levels are being proven as false and irrelevant. Again from personal experience, without being disrespectful at all to any group of players that I've worked with, I think women are more receptive to coaching than men are. They ask more questions, they are more inquisitive, they want to know the " why" behind the "what". However at the same time, men are easier to manage because they have a more task oriented approach without some of the emotional issues. The issue then because finding the best person, to manage each group based on the personalities, objectives and requirements of each. The more you can relate to athletes, the more you can know them as a person, the better coach you'll be and I think this is one area where women are much better than men. They are typically less driven my ego and more open to wanting to know what makes the athlete tick. A good coach can easily read his or her athletes and find a way to get everyone on board, that is the essence of coaching. At the more competitive levels, there is never one coach by rather a coaching staff, so you don't need a head coach who can manage people, demonstrate and teach technique, motivate players and do the admin work. This can all be shared among members of a coaching staff. I will continue to advocate for women in coaching roles and I will vocally challenge anyone who tells them women can't make good, even great coaches... even for men's sports or teams. I am open to being proven wrong as long as it is based on fact and not on bias or stereotype.
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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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