Coaches of Women's Teams

Job opportunities in women's coaching and administration increased dramatically after the passage of Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972. This increase is the result of increases in participation opportunities for female athletes. Today more girls begin playing sports at younger ages, and there has been an increase in the number of school, recreational, and club sports programs for girls and women. For example, there are currently 9,087 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) women's intercollegiate athletic teams and two professional sport leagues for women-the Women's National Basketball Association and Women's Professional Soccer league.

In addition, there are several organizations dedicated to promoting girls and women's participation in different sports, as well as the interests of coaches who coach women's teams. These include the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, National Golf Coaches Association, Collegiate Coaches Rowing Association, National Fastpitch Coaches Association, and National Soccer Coaches Association of America. The Women's Basketball Coaches Association is one of the largest of these organizations and represents female and male coaches of women's basketball teams at all levels of play, including high school, recreational, Amateur Athletic Union, junior college, community college, collegiate (NCAA and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics), and professional. The organization was founded in 1981 and currently has over 4,000 members.

[Page 305]There are still few women coaching men's teams: less than 3 percent of men's intercollegiate athletic teams have female head coaches, and approximately 57 percent of women's teams are coached by males. In addition, almost 42 percent of assistant coaches for women's teams are women. Before 1972 and the enactment of Title IX, 90 percent of women's intercollegiate athletic teams and about 2 percent of men's teams had female head coaches. Researchers have found that the most important reasons for the decline in the number of women coaches after Title IX's enactment are gender discrimination, workload issues, and lack of family/work balance in the workplace. Further, in an NCAA gender equity survey that was administered, in part, to NCAA female student-athletes, 52 percent of the 8,900 athlete respondents reported that they preferred their coach to be male.