Give female coaches a sporting chance
A lack of women in coaching is harmful for sport, according to a professor who has studied the issue for 20 years. Olivia Caldwell reports.
Kiwi coaching roles are dominated by men, and a professor who specialises in sport and leadership says it needs to change.
While female participation rates in sports are rising, the same cannot be said for female representation in coaching, which is completely underwhelming, Massey University professor Sarah Leberman has found through her research.
At international level the only premier team sports to have female coaches are netball’s Silver Ferns and cricket’s White Ferns. This could be detrimental to the growth of women’s sport, or at the very least women in leadership roles, says Leberman, a co-founder of Women in Sport Aotearoa.
Part of what she sees as a problem is the existing ‘‘gendered sport coaching environment’’, which makes it difficult for women to come through. She says sports coaching is generally maledominated so it is less attractive for women to aspire to these roles and inspire other young females.
‘‘If you are an athlete and you never see a woman as your coach, you don’t think ‘my next step is coaching’.’’ Leberman says creating visibility, role models and pathways for female coaches will help the situation, but we are seldom seeing sports organisations do this. ‘‘We need to look out for talented women coaches, develop strategies to retain and support them and make them more visible so they can become role models. We also need a proactive national programme that explicitly encourages women into coaching and raises awareness.’’
Leberman says a quota system is not the answer. However, sports that have large numbers of female participants should at least have one assistant coach who is a woman, starting at the local junior representative level.
‘‘Their significant achievements on the world stage suggest women’s sport is in a strong position in New Zealand. However, scratching below this veneer of publicly celebrated success is a sporting environment that favours men.’’
Leberman, who has studied sport in New Zealand for more than 20 years, says it is not through lack of interest in coaching that women are left out. ‘‘Far from it – they are at the junior level and then often drop out because of range of barriers.’’
She isn’t holding her breath for the country to see the first female All Blacks coach. ‘‘Not in my lifetime – I would settle for all women’s national sport teams being coached by women as a starting point.’’
She says many of the sports that have large female participation levels – football, hockey, rowing, rugby sevens – have all-male coaching teams.
How they rate
Leberman’s research shows efforts are being made by Sport New Zealand (SNZ) and other sporting organisations to increase female participation in sport, but little attention has been given to women coaching at elite level.
‘‘This is concerning and an issue which needs specific attention and action if women are to participate fully at all levels of sport in New Zealand.’’
New Zealand Rugby’s female teams, the Black Ferns and the Black Ferns sevens, are both coached by men.
NZR’s strategic plan aims to increase participation in women’s rugby to 21,000 by 2021, with a goal of increasing female coaching number in Auckland only. Leberman says leaving other main centres such as Wellington or Christchurch off the plan is an oversight.
‘‘While New Zealand Rugby’s women strategy recognises the need to develop and retain the coaches to support women’s rugby, it does not specifically focus on the development of women coaches at either the community or elite level.
‘‘It is unclear, therefore, what steps New Zealand Rugby is taking to increase female participation in coaching at all
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
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.’’
The challenges
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.’’
‘‘If you are an athlete and you never see a woman as your coach, you don’t think ‘my next step is coaching’.’’ Professor Sarah Leberman