Should we create a “Coaching Movement?”

Last week, I attended the “Title IX at 40” Conference at the University of Michigan, hosted by the SHARP Center and the Women’s Sports Foundation. The conference program was packed with amazing speakers from academic scholars and researchers to gold medal Olympic winners, all of whom were focused on the continued advocacy and promotion of equitable and quality opportunities for all girls and women in sport and physical activity settings.
However, one of the conference speakers really resonated with me; Judy Sweet. While I have heard Judy speak several times, something about her talk at this particular conference “stuck.” There is no doubt that Judy’s professional positions throughout the course of her career have positioned her to make a powerful impact for all girls and women in sport and physical activity settings. Judy served as NCAA Senior Vice President for Championships and Education Services until 2006 and championed Title IX and gender equity at the collegiate level by establishing policies and procedures during her tenure that are still in effect today. Prior to her work with the NCAA, Judy served for 24 years as the Director of Athletics at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) where she became one of the first women in the nation selected to direct a combined men’s and women’s intercollegiate athletics program. While Judy’s work with the NCAA and at UCSD has foster growth, progress and advancement for many female college athletes, Judy’s current work as the Co-Director of the Alliance for Women’s Coaches is where her legacy will continue to cultivate opportunities for women, still on the field, and not as athletes, but as coaches.
For a significant part of her career, Judy identified opportunities for female athletes to become a bigger part of the college sports landscape. Now, through the establishment of the Alliance for Women Coaches, http://gocoaches.org/ Judy has continued her advocacy efforts for women and now specifically focuses on female coaches. Last week, Judy explained to us that the number of female coaches has significantly declined since the passage of Title IX and we are finding more male coaches, coaching female college athletes. A presentation of the data explained the possible economic and sociological reasons for the decline of women coaches and I was left wondering…. “What can we do about this?”
I understand the possible reasons why there has been a decline in female coaches at the college level, but what can we do about it? These types of questions tend to present themselves as “problems to be solved” but also tend to be very frustrating. Sometimes when change is needed we look to and rely on changes with individual behaviors. However, these types of problems are much more systematic and challenge an institutional culture that has been allowed to be created and consequently now identify the expectations of an athletic department. The more I thought about the actual root issue “How do we get more female coaches coaching?” several thoughts ran through my mind and I realize that before we can begin to problem solve we almost need to create a…dare I say… a “movement;” a collective consciousness that will challenge the stereotypical ideas and biases that seems to coincide with female coaches and why less female coaches are hired to coach. So where should we start and who should we start with?