With the ever increasing attention on women’s sports globally, you’d be forgiven in thinking that sportswomen are in a good place. An increase of investment in women’s sport has resulted in the professionalisation of women’s leagues, equal prize money for grand slams and championships, shoe companies providing paid maternity leave, and as of 2012, women competing in every single sport at the Olympic Games.[1]
In addition to improvements in participation, it seems more women than ever before are coaching and leading at the highest levels of sport. Sports news websites are awash with trailblazing stories of female leaders who have broken the glass ceiling; Lori Locust, the first female coach to win a Super Bowl (2021)[2], Becky Hammon, the first female coach to act as Head Coach during a regular season NBA (2020)[3] , and Kim Ng, the first woman to become a general manager for an MLB team (2020)[4]. US pro sports in particular continue to celebrate the influx of women leaders and coaches entering their billion dollar franchises and other sports leagues around the globe are following suit.
Graph 1: The Number of Female Coaches in the MLB from 2011 – 2022 [5]
On the surface, sportswomen appear to have conquered the sporting landscape, but dig a little deeper, and the cracks begin to show.
According to sports lawyers Farrer & Co, only 3% of professional sports clubs in England have 30% or more women on boards, and only 5% have a woman in a leadership role.[6] Across the global sporting landscape, this narrative continues; there are now half as less female head coaches in the NCAA than in 1971.[7] In the Women’s Super League in England (as of the date of this article), only 5 teams out of 12 have a female head coach. On the professional women’s tennis tour the WTA the percentage of players in the top 100 with a female coach has dropped to 4%.[8] In the top championships of Track and Field, less than 1% of the athletes competing in the World Championships and the Olympic Games are coached by a women, and only 10% of coaching accreditations at the Olympic games across all sports, are given to women. [9]
But why?
Source – Female Coaching Network
