“A social and structural issue”: Making sense of gender dynamics in coaching

Collage by Emily Paris, Photo Editor; Photos courtesy of Larry Newman

According to researchers at the University of Florida, men represent over 57% of head coaches in women’s college and professional sports. Women only represent 3% of head coaches on the men’s side, and overall non-males hold less than 25% of the head coaching share.

Why?

At the dawn of women’s sports in 1972, 90% of coaches were female, according to the NCAA. As female athletes gained more respect, men were granted more of those coaching positions. Again, why?

“Unfortunately, I think there's a really simple answer for that and it's sexism,” Chapman swimming and diving head coach Juliet Suess said. “Men have been viewed as the experts on sport since the dawn of time. It’s just been deeply entrenched into our society. I hate to say that it's probably just as simple as casual, institutionalized sexism.”

Sexist notions about women in sports don’t seem to be held by the majority of athletes, at least not those at Chapman. Francis Godlee-Campbell, a sophomore communication studies major and defensive lineman for the football team, was staunch in his support for more female coaches.

“I think there should be more women (coaches) in men and women’s sports, and male coaches can 100% advocate for more female coaches,” Godlee-Campbell said. “I had female strength training coaches in high school and was never bothered by it. They were great.”

Tade Scheid, a freshman biological sciences major on the women’s lacrosse team, said she feels like the gender of a coach is irrelevant.

“Gender doesn’t define knowledge or experience,” Scheid said. “While a woman might not know how it is to play in a men’s league, there are many parallels between women and men’s sports that cannot be denied.”

The sentiments shared by Godlee-Campbell and Scheid may not prove that the overall athlete population is progressive about gender in coaching. However, it does make one wonder if those perpetuating the status quo are in higher up positions. Suess said they believe so, and that many college and professional programs “haven't had an opportunity to catch up,” because those in power are mostly men.

Less than 27% of executive positions across the world of sports are held by women, according to a study by Sport Integrity Global Alliance. Not only do males represent the lion’s share of coaches, they also hold the majority of powerful positions in professional sports. That systematic control is a big factor holding non-male coaches back.

This is in contrast to the growth in popularity of female athletes. Women’s sports have seen record high viewership in a multitude of sports. Suess posited that the reason is female and queer coaches need to have extensive and impressive resumes, whereas sports teams will take more risks with inexperienced male coaches.

Take Jessica Campbell. She became the first female assistant coach in the National Hockey League (NHL), taking the bench for the Seattle Kraken on Oct. 8 of this year in their season opener. Campbell is extremely qualified for the job. She also won most valuable player of the 2010 Under-18 World Championships, in which Canada won gold. She then played for Cornell University's women’s ice hockey team from 2010 to 2014, taking the lead as captain in her senior season. Campbell also competed professionally in Sweden and Canada. She likely wouldn’t have gotten the job with a more lackluster resume.

This monumental moment dominated the sports news cycle for the next few days, sparking discussions over whether it was just a positive moment or a true sign of more equality in the future of coaching.

“Hockey is viewed as a fairly masculine sport, and I think that it's really awesome to see a woman in that position,” Suess said. “I'm kind of hesitant to make it as a blanket statement about the NHL. It shouldn't be understated how important it is, but I also think that it shouldn't be overstated, that it's going to be the sign of some larger scale. I think right now, she's going to potentially remain the outlier and I hope I'm very wrong about that.”

It also shouldn’t be understated that queer and non-binary coaches are impacted severely by the gender roles society, but especially sports, holds.

Being the only non-binary coach at Chapman, Suess has the job of coaching a number of athletes who don’t relate to their gender identity.

“There may be some truth to the fact that men will listen better to men,” Suess said. “That’s also a social and structural issue in our society. Why are we not teaching young boys to respect women and respect non-binary people? You've basically told them from a very young age, by only giving them male coaches, that those are the people who are authority figures (in sports). I do find that sometimes the athletes that are harder to reach are the male athletes for me. I don't necessarily think it's because I don't understand them.”

Suess also posed the question as to why to understand an athlete, you have to be the same gender as them. Throughout their interview with The Panther, Suess made their befuddlement towards this logic very clear.

“We feed in societally,” they continued. “We feed into that narrative, and we need to be teaching boys and young people from a very young age that women should be respected, and that women and non-binary people and any other person is just as capable as anyone else.”

Sports media has been known to perpetuate negative stereotypes for non-male coaches. Jason Whitlock, a sports columnist, once said Dawn Staley wasn’t a good coach and “acquires talent and gets out of the way.” Staley has won three national championships for the University of South Carolina women’s basketball program. This is just an opinion from Whitlock, but the problem is that you cannot find him bashing successful male coaches in this way.

Rhetoric used by many in sports media feeds into the idea that men are inherently more qualified than women. Sometimes it is more subtle than Whitlock’s brazen analysis. There tends to be a focus on the physical appearance of female coaches, while men are described in a more ethereal way. A New York Times article from 2020 described Becky Hammon, who had become the first woman to be the head coach for a National Basketball Association game, as “sharp-dressed” and placed emphasis on her style.

Given the lack of non-male coaches in men’s sports, the media also focuses more on the ground-breaking aspect of the coach rather than what they are actually doing for the team. All of these small uses of language create a sense that women’s actual actions as a coach come second to what will sell as a story.

Perhaps, though, there is more to the issue than just sexism. Women’s soccer head coach Courtney Calderon said that the value placed on family and motherhood by many women plays a huge role.

“From my experience… all those hours take away from family,” Calderon said. “I think for women, family is usually number one. That’s where you tend to see more women pick the family over the job.”

That isn’t to say, though, that women can’t have both a job and a family. Calderon acknowledged that the pressure to be a good mother and a good coach is stronger than for fathers.

“It’s very draining to put that amount of time (into the job) and probably not always get the respect that is needed,” Calderon said. “It’s true that sometimes (women) do have to work a little harder, because they have to constantly prove themselves to stay at that level. It gets old.”

For women, it always comes full circle to societal expectations. Yes, many make the choice to be mothers over a career. However, that decision is heavily influenced by how the world views women’s roles versus men’s.

Suess said that while society has a large influence on sport, sport can equally influence society. Somebody just needs to force through change. According to Suess, the pressure is on male coaches.

“What are the conversations that we're having with our male athletes and our male coaches to ensure that they are, regardless of who they're coaching… not participating in this cultural issue,” Suess said.

Barron Maizland joined Chapman's men's and women's cross country and track & field coaching staff in 2018, and is now the interim head coach. He said that educating athletes can help build more access to coaching positions for women.

“Lack of respect is a quality that should not be tolerated in sports, doesn't matter who you are,” Maizland said. “(It) only hurts the team as a whole.”

That idea must be actively implemented by men in positions of power across sports. Many will say the right thing but change requires inspired action. It may not happen overnight but if men are willing to relinquish their control on sports, then women, queer and non-binary coaches can break through the glass ceiling.

Moments like Campbell in the NHL mark significant steps forward for gender equality in sports. Diverse representation is critical not just for fairness but for inspiring future athletes and creating a culture that values different perspectives, ultimately strengthening the entire sports community. They just need to stop being moments, and start being the norm.