Gender Barriers in Athletics
January 15, 2009 by odonnell8
Filed under Famous Women in Sports, NCAA, Swimming
So, I’ve been contemplating how I want to comment on this article since it was released a week ago, on January 8th. The NCAA released its findings in a recent study conducted to determine the number of women interested in pursuing a career in athletics. For me, this study was staggering, eye-opening, and disheartening. I immediately emailed it to every woman I know in the business. Some background: I am an assistant swim coach for a Division 3 men’s and women’s swim team. This is my 5th year as an assistant and my goal has always been to become a head coach.
The reason why this study hit home for me is because I can completely understand the challenges women face. In the sport of swimming, a majority of the programs are combined, men’s and women’s. The number of women coaching women is small, the number of women coaching men is even smaller. I know of 2 women in Division 3 who are the head coaches of both the men and the women. This is not to say that there aren’t more, and it is my hope to do a study on the number of female coaches in swimming at the division 3 level.
A colleague just did some similar research at the division 1 level. Danielle Grobmyer is assistant swim coach at UMass. Looking to further her success in a field dominated by men, she wanted to do some research and look realistically at the statistics. 14% of swim coaches at the division 1 level are women. 28 out of 207 coaches are women. Ironically these statistics are not publicized anywhere. Now understand that athletic directors generally replace a male head coach with a male. Doesn’t look like breaking into the field of coaching is going to be an easy task for just any successful female. No wonder women are discouraged and often decide to pursue another career, or decide to start a family.
Now, I’m 26 years old. I’m not ready to have children, but I know that one day I do want to have them. This is one factor in my decision making process when I decide how I want to move forward with my career. I am truly worried that coaching will continue to be a less desirable career for women, and therefore there will continue to be a minority of women in coaching. Catch22. Women grow up having male coaches, so they assume coaching is a male’s job, or they underestimate what a female coach can offer that a male coach cannot. Women do not see strong, confident coaches so they don’t have role models in the field. For me, this has been the driving force in motivating me to be successful, push the envelope, and become a strong, confident, and inspiring female coach.
I have had some really great female coaches, some really horrible female coaches, some really great male coaches, and some really horrible male coaches. The people I most respect in my lifelong career in athletics, are women. Some of them weren’t even my specific coach, but I have chosen a career that will allow me to emulate them, my role-models. This study, Gender Equity in College Coaching and Administration – Perceived Barriers, although not what many women want to see, is only fueling my motivation to make a difference.
Wow, Megan. Very interesting post and very timely for my life.
This is an issue I have given a lot of thought to also. In some ways I think its great as sport teaches responsibility, team work and dedication but on the other hand it can lead to such disappointment and lack of work skills as there are only so many positions for athletes compared to how many want to be successful
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my delicious. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
Interesting article, not engaged in the types of waters of sport, but now promise to make attempt
Well this is an interesting topic . Most of the Asian countries there are barriers when it comes to the women and athletics. Specially in middle east countries. Sports like Swimming , Gymnastic were not allowed in those countries i think . But by now they have come up with better solutions for that it seems.
As a biker i can say there are alot of barriers between males n females in sports field.. specially when it comes to adventure sports u can see a huge diversity between genders. i dont accept or encourage it at all.. hope things will be solved soon.. Thanks for sharing
It is unfortunate that sports coaching has become like this. In a lot of other fields of work, women are making great strides to becoming more equal to men. The worst part of it is what you described as the Catch 22: Women will continue to be a minority in coaching, which makes going after a coaching job for women less desirable. It is almost a negative trend which needs to be altered before we have barely any women coaches available. Thanks for your insight on the subject, it was very informative.
I think that that the coach of any team should be that’s team’s gender. Frankly I would not want my basketball or football coach to be a woman. And I do not think woman’s teams should be coached by men, unless, there were no woman coach’s available. I can understand the argument….even though I do not watch the WNBA at all, whenever I flip the channel to it by accident I always see men coaches on pretty much all the teams!
Training for any sport professionally demands a great effort and it’s even more demanding when you aim at making a living out of it. Women seem to be gaining more and more room in the competitive sport’s arena but there’s definitely very much to do yet. And trainers, especially female ones, have their own battles to fight as well.
Very interesting post. Women are occupying more positions in competitive sports and therefore they request female trainers because they are more “tuned” with women’s needs and fights in a traditionally masculine environment.
Being a female surf coach, I understand fully where you’re coming from. I have noticed that over the past 3 years of working as a full time coach that more and more women are getting involved in surf coaching as a career. The majority of my female students actually prefer being taught by a woman as their physical strengths seem to be understood better. I say “You go girls!”.
Interesting article, thank you for sharing it with us. The results of the study are not surprising.