Imagine a young athlete looking at the sidelines and never seeing a reflection of their own potential. For most boys, male leadership is a given. For girls, finding a female coach is a game of chance where the odds are stacked 60-40 against them.
I have seen the impact of having a female coach in sports and I would probably not be playing my sport if it weren’t for the effect that female coaches have had on me. Girls who see women in a position of power see someone like them, and that encourages them to continue.
“Perhaps the most powerful impact of female coaches is that they keep young girls in the game longer. Girls who see women leading on the sidelines are more likely to keep playing, stay active and eventually give back to the sports community themselves. When youth athletes feel supported, by both their coaches and their family, they’re more likely to stick with sports and maintain an active lifestyle,” said i9 Sports, a youth sports league organization.
In girls youth sports, the number of female coaches is 20%, but in women’s professional soccer, the number is a very low 14%. The lack of representation at the youth level stems from a staggering glass ceiling at the professional level.
The scarcity of leadership is felt even at the highest levels of the game. Laura Harvey, the winningest head coach in National Women’s Soccer League history, head coach of the Seattle Reign, recently expressed her heartbreak over the league’s lack of female coaches. There’s 14 coaches in the league and only two are women.
Approximately only 3% of male sports teams are coached by females so, where are all the female coaches? For instance, across NCAA divisions in recent years, only 41% of women’s teams and 6% of men’s teams had female head coaches.
“The gender disparity remains in the assistant coaching ranks in college athletics, making it more difficult for women to move up to a head coaching position in the future,” The Athletic said.
The scarcity isn’t just a cultural oversight; it’s a gap that federal legislation has yet to fill. Title IX aimed to eliminate gender disparity in college sports. While it requires equal opportunities for male and female athletes, it does not have any regulations of gender equity in coaching.
“In order to ensure compliance with Title IX, universities and colleges in the US are supposed to provide an annual Equity in Athletics Data Analysis Report, which tracks participation, coaching staff and salaries, revenues and expenses,” The International Platform on Sport and Development said.
It’s time for athletic departments and professional leagues to move past participation reports. We must intentionally open the coaching doors that Title IX left locked. If we want girls to stay in the game, we must give them leaders who prove they can be the head of it.
