Comments on: Men Coaching Women

By: Feminist Law Professors » Blog Archive » From the Department of One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: In the 1970s, over 90 percent of the collegiate women’s teams were coached by women, but now just over 40 percent of women’s teams are headed

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:04:42 +0000

[...] Via AAUW Dialog, which noted: …Title IX has made an enormous positive difference in women’s sports: two years before the enactment of Title IX in 1970, there were only 2.5 women’s teams per school, but as of 2006, there are 8.45 teams per school. However, unsurprisingly, there are still more men’s sports teams than women’s at institutions nationwide. [...]

By: Sylvia

Sylvia — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:19:14 +0000

I have always been involved in both boys and girls sports as a coach. Recently I went to a team composed of 4 year old boy and girls soccer players. My daughter was the coach. Most of the other teams were coached by men (still…even at this level). And I realized that things were never going to change unless more women get involved on all levels–coaching, the organizational structure, and other official duties.

Our problem as women is that we wait or think that someone else should do all this. It takes too much of our time because we work or have other interests.

The situation won’t change unless it changes on all levels.

By: Carrie in KS

Carrie in KS — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:12:11 +0000

It would be interesting to see if Condoleezza Rice gets into sports management/leadership at the close of the Bush Administration. Even if it is for a sport like football, she could really push open the locker room door for other women in sports leadership.

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:07:06 +0000

I am supposing that one of the reasons for more men now coaching women’s teams has to do with the work that was done to raise the salaries of women coaches — thus becoming more attractive for men applying for the jobs and having the old boys network to draw upon. At the same time, most schools that started out with separate athletic directors for women’s and men’s departments were consolidated — for efficiency, no doubt — and the director that was let go generally had less seniority, most often the woman.

On the reverse side, at the time my daughter coached a men’s soccer team (Div.III, 1998 – 2005) she was one of only 3 women coaching men’s team in the country. There has been no surge in that number since then either.

What can be done? Go to the top and get yourself or other like-minded women onto the boards of the colleges and universities and be an activist within. Sports are often of more concern to the trustees because it is a major fundraising hook, so they look at the details. Then, as with any other advocacy strategy, start the lobbying!