Participation by Women as Coaches in the United States Lauren Meehan June 25, 2014 Pioneer Coaches Symposium: Paying It Forward Female Coaches Advocacy - Lauren Meehan1

Nationwide data Female Coaches Advocacy - Lauren Meehan2 National team programNWSLWPSLW-League Head coaches4/71/914%22% Assistant coaches0/13/1324% Goalkeeper coaches0/11/914%

NCAA data Head coaches: 27% Assistant coaches: 48% Volunteer/grad coaches: 60% Female Coaches Advocacy - Lauren Meehan3

NCAA data Head coaches: 28% Assistant coaches: 47% Volunteer/grad coaches: 65% Female Coaches Advocacy - Lauren Meehan4

NCAA data Head coaches: 37% Assistant coaches: 56% Volunteer/grad coaches: 68% Female Coaches Advocacy - Lauren Meehan5

ECNL data Female Coaches Advocacy - Lauren Meehan6

ECNL data % of teams with a female head coach Female Coaches Advocacy - Lauren Meehan7

Colorado data – Youth club 20% of girls U11 – U18 state competitive league (CYS) and ECNL teams had female head coaches in the 2013 – 2014 season Distribution by clubs with > 10 teams Female Coaches Advocacy - Lauren Meehan8

Colorado data – Youth club % of teams coached by women by level of team Female Coaches Advocacy - Lauren Meehan9

Other research More states below average than above average female participation as ODP coaches and coaching education instructors Sam Snow, personal communication, February 14, 2014 Intimidation, expectation of displaying ‘male’ characteristics, and patronization limit women’s coaching education participation Schlesinger, T. & Weigelt-Schlesinger, Y. (2012). ‘Poor thing’ or ‘Wow she knows how to do it’ – gender stereotypes as barriers to women’s qualification in the education of soccer coaches. Soccer & Society, (13.1), 56 – 72. Women take blame for coaching inequalities – ‘not good enough’ Fielding-Lloyd, B. & Mean, L. (2011). ‘I don’t think I can catch it’: Women, confidence, and responsibility in football coach education. Soccer & Society (12.3), 345 – 364. Reasons for low participation – women’s sports are not widely recognized or respected, coaches are not paid well, bias against female coaches, few female coaching role models for younger athletes to follow Demers, G. (2007, May/June). To coach or not? Female athletes considering coaching careers discuss perceived drawbacks. Soccer Journal, 24 – 30. More women are assistant coaches than head coaches Kerr, G., Marshall, D., Sharp, D., & Stirling, A. “Women in coaching: A descriptive study.” Petro-Canada Sport Leadership Sportif, November 3 – 5, 2006, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. More women coach at resource rich institutions Welch, S. & Sigelman, L. (2007). Who’s calling the shots? Women coaches in Division I women’s sports. Social Science Quarterly (88.5), 1415 – Softball (65.2%), women’s basketball (62.4%), volleyball (57.1%) have more women coaches than soccer; in soccer, women head coaches more likely to have women assistant coaches Sagas, M., Cunningham, G.B., & Teed, K. (2006). An examination of homologous reproduction in the representation of assistant coaches of women’s teams. Sex Roles (55), 503 – 510. Female Coaches Advocacy - Lauren Meehan10

Next steps Empirical data explaining why women choose to coach or not coach Further data analysis on different trends in coaching participation – digging deeper Creation and implementation of actionable strategies to promote greater involvement by women as coaches at all levels of the game Female Coaches Advocacy - Lauren Meehan11