Lack of Qualified Women Candidates For Head Coaching Jobs

Discussion in 'Women's College' started by WoSoFan, Mar 10, 2019.

  1. WoSoFan

    WoSoFan Member

    Dec 23, 2017
    I am not sure there is a simple answer. It may require some extensive work on someone's part, but to get things started with some very limited research on my part, I did find out some interesting facts. I took two of the Power 5 Conferences, the Big 10 and Pac-12, and checked out each schools coaching staff, and was a bit surprised on some of the things I found out. We tend to look only at the number of Head Coaching Jobs being held by women, without digging further into seeing the make up of each schools coaching staff. While a majority of the Head Coaching positions were filled by men, 9 to 5 ratio in the Big 10 and 9 to 3 in the Pac-12, what I discovered was that at the other end was a different picture. When you look at the Volunteer and 2nd Assistant positions, I found that 61% of those positions were women. As I have said, I have only done limited research, so it is hard to tell whether this holds true in the last 5 to 10 years. But assuming it does, there should be a pool of potential candidates for future head coaching positions. But is there really any kind of pool building up? If the pool drops off, this may be a difference in a career choice for women, then it is for men, because of the huge commitments it will require being away from home with all the travelling required on their part , especially if there are children involved or even plans to have children. I guess the only way to really know as to why women leave coaching would be to do a survey on their reason they are leaving.

    Some other interesting things I did discover as well, were the ratio of men to women on each staff. It varied in different ways. For example, in the big 10 there are 5 women coaches. The Nebraska staff is composed of all men while the staffs of Minnesota and Michigan are all women. Ohio State and Illinois has a women's head coach with the rest of the their staff being men. With regards to the Pac 12, I was very surprised to find there were more men in their coaching ranks, 26 men and 19 women, while the Big 10 has a ratio of 27 women to 25 men. As progressive as the West Coast is, I would have had it the other way around. Washington State has and all men's staff right now, but does have a spot for a volunteer assistant. On the other hand the Washington team has a all female staff.

    It looks like getting more women involved in coaching, at least for these two conferences is being attempted, but for some reason it is not showing up on a bigger number staying the course.
     
    HouseofCards repped this.
  2. outsiderview

    outsiderview Member

    Oct 1, 2013
    Charlotte
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    I actually did my masters research paper on this years back and the study was for women's soccer, volleyball, and softball. Some of the trends I found and information I got from talking to a lot of female head coaches was not so much the number of females that get in to coaching, but those that actually stay in the business. One of the trends that were discussed was the path that men take to get in college coaching being much longer and going through the high school, travel ball, volunteer ranks before getting a full time job as a college coach. On the women's side, you see a lot of coaches who's first coaching job is in college. The average age for a male compared to a female for first full time college coaching was almost 10 years older. Some of the opinions I got were that this sets a lot of these young female coaches up for failure. They do not get the opportunity to be a head coach at the youth or high school level and perfect their craft. They are thrust in to the college scene as a second assistant or volunteer and given little responsibilities in coaching. Some of this was blamed on youth clubs not hiring or trying to attract these female coaches right out of school. Some of it was blamed on the pool of candidates out there, and a school wants a male head coach to hire a female so they just grab someone green. Over all it was very interesting to dive deeper in to it. There are plenty of arguments on both sides as to why there are not as many female head coaches out there and why there are so many that get out of the profession. I was a college coach for 10 years before going back in to the club game, I just also happened to coach for 15 years before getting in to it so my experience as a coach and my goals were different than that of someone who enters at 22-25 years old.
     
    soccersubjectively and TimB4Last repped this.
  3. Holmes12

    Holmes12 Member

    May 15, 2016
    Club:
    Manchester City FC
    Women have bio clox. Period. Leaving those those who don't want (goes against maternal instincts, so, not many), can't (no interested sire or biological issue), and LBGTQ (even they have maternal instincts). So, few lifers.
     
  4. Cliveworshipper

    Cliveworshipper Member+

    Dec 3, 2006

    Donald?


    Is that you?


    And what makes you think male coaches don’t have LGBTQ issues?
     
    HeadSpun and ytrs repped this.
  5. staffstaff

    staffstaff Member

    Arsenal
    United States
    Sep 12, 2016
    Chula Vista, CA
    Club:
    AC Milan
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
     

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