Why Female Athletes Decide to Become Coaches

Why Female Athletes Decide to Become Coaches — or Not

A perennial dilemma in Canadian sport is the scarcity of women coaches. Theories abound, but solutions remain elusive. Young female high performance athletes are an obvious source of coaching talent. Interested in unravelling what attracts, or dissuades, this talent pool and curious about the impact of role models on their decision, Guylaine Demers interviewed 18 female athletes and their four female coaches.

Some of what she unearthed comes as no surprise; other findings startle, particularly the lack of confidence some expressed in their skills and abilities to perform coaching tasks despite performing well at a high level. Of importance is the fact that the female coaches, despite being keenly aware of the drawbacks of their chosen profession, remain committed, so much so that they are enacting measures designed to encourage their female athletes to carefully consider a coaching career. These include taking on graduating students as assistant coaches; recruiting their athletes as coaches at their clubs’ summer youth camps; presenting a variety of existing family life models to the athletes to show it is possible to be a coach and a mother; and being on the lookout for athletes with coaching potential and referring them to clubs and schools looking for coaches.

“Why Female Athletes Decide to Become Coaches” is an important first step to understanding, and possibly reversing, the under-representation of women in the coaching profession. — Sheila Robertson

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le Journal en français

JULY 2004
Vol. 4, No. 5
Front Page
CONTENTS

Why Female Athletes Decide to Become Coaches — or Not

Introduction

Current Knowledge of Under-Representation of Female Coaches

Questions

What the Athletes Said

What the Coaches Said

Conclusion

References

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