Coaches, Female

Large increases in participation opportunities at all levels of sport for girls and women have opened up more job opportunities for coaches and athletic administrators. The number of girls participating in high school sports has risen from 294,015 in 1971 to an all-time high of 3,114,091 in 2008-09. Similarly, women's participation in intercollegiate sports has also increased to all-time highs. In 1968, there were 16,000 female college athletes; there were 180,000 in 2008. In addition, there are now two professional sport leagues for women: the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and Women's Professional Soccer league.

Despite these dramatic increases in female athletic participation, since 1972 the percentage of females coaching women's intercollegiate athletic teams has steadily decreased every year. For example, in 1972, 90 percent of women's intercollegiate teams had female head coaches; today, only 43 percent of women's teams are led by women. At this time, there are 3,874 female and almost 5,200 male head coaches of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) division I, II, and III women's sports teams. In addition, only 57.5 percent of assistant coaches of all women's NCAA teams are female-this percentage has remained consistent for the last 15 years.

Similar data regarding the gender of coaches at the interscholastic level are not available because unlike colleges and universities, high schools are currently not required to publicly report this information. However, the NCAA percentages are mirrored in data collected from the WNBA. During the 2009 season, 46 percent of WNBA head coaches and 55 percent of assistant coaches were women. In 1998, the WNBA's first season, 70 percent of head coaches in the WNBA and 50 percent of assistant coaches were women.

There are a number of different reasons for this decrease in the number of women entering and staying in the coaching profession. In a 2008 report on gender equity in intercollegiate coaching and administration published by the NCAA, female student-athletes cited salary concerns, concerns over the time requirements of coaching, and preference for a 9-to-5 workday as perceived reasons for not choosing a career in athletics. Further, these female student-athletes identified time requirements, salary, and gender discrimination as perceived reasons why women leave the coaching profession. Ninety-seven percent of the 8,900 female student athletes who responded to this survey were satisfied with their participation in athletics, yet only 10 percent of these respondents indicated that they were interested in working in college athletics.