Why Growing Numbers of Canadian Women Coaches Are Going South

When American-based, Canadian-born and bred former softball coach Kelley Anderson approached the Canadian Journal for Women in Coaching, wanting to write an article on why so many of Canada’s women coaches were practising their profession in the United States, we welcomed the opportunity to explore this sensitive issue.

It’s sensitive because no country likes to lose a vital asset and still less to admit that, aside from the Coaching Association of Canada’s Women in Coaching program and a few other isolated initiatives, little is being done to rectify the situation.

It’s an issue because while our talent base of women coaches is thin, given our small population in comparison to the United States, the rate at which we are losing these coaches is symptomatic of the many serious impediments to improving the overall lot of women coaches in Canada, at all levels and in most sports.

Although she doesn’t offer a panacea, because what is needed is not a Band-Aid but a total overhaul, Kelley does present real stories of real coaches, all of whom are committed to coaching as a profession. Passion for sport knows no gender boundaries, and it is long past time that this was universally accepted. Only then will Canada’s coaching climate warm sufficiently to welcome women coaches who want only to coach, and preferably at home. — Sheila Robertson

The views expressed in the articles of The Canadian Journal for Women in Coaching are those of the authors and do not reflect the policies of the Coaching Association of Canada.

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le Journal en français

JANUARY 2007
Vol. 7, No. 1
Front Page
CONTENTS

Why Growing Numbers of Canadian Women Coaches Are Going South

by Kelley Anderson

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