Coaches sporting chance
levels, if any.’’
Hockey New Zealand has more than 55,000 registered players, 52 per cent of whom are female. Both the Black Sticks men and women are coached by males.
Leberman says Hockey NZ appears to have no plans on developing women in coaching, particularly at the elite level.
New Zealand Football has plans to increase female participants to 33,000 by 2025.
NZ Football strategic plan highlights the importance of investment in attracting, retaining and developing coaches within the women’s game. This includes fulltime coaching staff for the women’s national team, which Leberman says is encouraging.
New Zealand Cricket leads the way, with the White Ferns having the only female coach in charge, aside from the Silver Ferns in netball – a sport predominantly played by females internationally.
New Zealand Cricket’s 2016 women and cricket report identified women as ‘‘having virtually no voice in the governance and leadership of cricket’’, and few female coaches.
Specifically, fewer than 10 per cent of coaches are female at the development, representative and high performance levels of the sport.
NZC recognises the need to increase and deepen the pool of players, coaches, officials, administrators and fans, says Leberman.
‘‘While it is unclear what specific measures NZC is currently taking to increase the numbers of women coaches, it does appear to be making a strong commitment to enhancing female participation and involvement in all aspects of the sport.’’
Rugby league has bucked the trend, though, with the Warriors recently appointing former Kiwi Ferns captain Luisa Avaiki as the inaugural coach of the new women’s NRL team, which is set to play in September.
The benefits of having females in elite coaching roles are huge, says Leberman.
Research shows diversity at leadership and governance level of any organisation brings financial and non-financial benefits. As well as enhancing financial performance, diversity increases the talent pool, enhances productivity and innovation, and improves employee retention, she says.
‘‘While considerable focus is often placed on the value of diversity within governance and management roles, this is equally important at the elite coaching level.’’
Leberman found in her research that sport communicates to the world what is relevant and valued. If Kiwi sport is coached by males only, this is setting a standard for the world to see.
Benefits from having women in coaching positions include role modelling, challenging the stereotypes about women and leadership, and demonstrating coaching is an option for women.
It is also important for males, as a woman coach teaches boys to respect women in leadership positions, she says.
‘‘They also provide a different perspective and are more likely to be strong advocates for equality and inclusion in the sporting domain.’’
Leberman’s research outlines a vast number of challenges for women becoming coaches at national level, including gender stereotyping – ie, femininity and leadership versus heroic masculinity – hiring practices, the existence of ‘‘the old boys club’’, complexities of women’s lives when having a family, lack of support networks, female confidence levels and gender imbalance at governance level.
She says it is not just the problem of sports organisations, but should be a national focus from the government down.
‘‘New Zealand would benefit from a strategic commitment to developing a pipeline of women coaches, supported by an ongoing, fully funded, and multiorganisational leadership programme delivered at the national level by SNZ and HPSNZ.
‘‘Fundamentally, the structures within sport organisations need to change to enable women to reach their coaching potential.’’