Women’s Leadership in American Sport: Progressing or Backsliding?

OCTOBER 2006 FEATURE

A common assumption by women in sport outside the borders of the United States is that, thanks in large part to Title IX, their American counterparts are upwardly mobile, moving in ever-increasing numbers into leadership positions as coaches, senior administrators, and, for the purpose of this article, athletic directors (ADs).

Title IX
Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 is the landmark legislation that bans sex discrimination in schools, whether in academics or in athletics. Title IX states: “No person in the U.S. shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal aid.”

Dr. Nancy Lough
Photo Credit:
Kim Jew Photography Studio

However, speaking at the 2005 Congress of the International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Girls and Women, Dr. Nancy Lough, then an associate professor of sport administration at the University of New Mexico and now associate professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, surprised her audience when she said that, in fact, the number of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I women ADs is decreasing, that there is virtually no movement by women ADs from Division II and Division III schools to Division I, and, further, that the advancement of senior women administrators (SWAs), the one position designated for a woman and that would logically be the most likely to prepare her to climb the ladder, appears stalled.

If we accept that AD is the highest position, with the highest status and the highest profile, that a sport administrator can aspire to in American university sport, then there is value in examining the reality for ambitious women within the context of Nancy’s remarks, which are based upon research by her, Dr. Heidi Grappendorf and Dr. Joy Griffin and reported in the International Journal of Sport Management.

Relevant to the discussion, and discussed below, are the variables that characterize the three NCAA divisions and the impact of Title IX on female sport, both of which can be expected to affect the leadership of NCAA athletic departments. Also relevant to the discussion are the outcomes from the surge of interest in women’s sport in the late 1990s, arising from American success in women’s basketball and soccer, and the collapse of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW).

NCAA Structural Variables
Universities whose teams compete in Division I must sponsor at least seven sports for men and seven for women (or six for men and eight for women) along with two team sports for each gender. Each playing season has to be represented by each gender and there are contest and participant minimums and scheduling criteria for each sport. … Such institutions must meet minimum financial aid awards … and there are maximum financial aid awards for each sport that cannot be exceeded. Schools with football teams are classified as Division I-A or I-AA and typically have highly structured, even complex programs. “Division I is getting very specialized and very commercialized,” says Nancy. “The higher you go, the larger is the amount of their money coming from things like Nike contracts, sponsorships, and television contracts—areas in which women need to be provided experience.”

Division II schools sponsor at least four sports each for men and women and two team sports for each gender. There are contest and participant minimums for each sport … There are maximum financial aid awards for each sport that must not be exceeded. Teams are generally composed of local or in-state student athletes, many of whom pay for their education through scholarships, grants, student loans, and employment earnings. At these institutions, “their athletic administration is growing; … they’ll have a sport info person, perhaps a marketing or fund-raising person, and probably a compliance person or SWA,” says Nancy.

In Division III, the sponsored sports number at least five each for men and women and two team sports per gender. Unlike Division I and II athletes, Division III athletes receive no financial assistance for their athletic endeavours. Participation is encouraged by maximizing the number and variety of athletic opportunities and placing special importance on the impact of athletics on the participants rather than on the spectators. According to Nancy, “Division III student athletes are participating for the sheer joy of sport, or that’s how it is supposed to be.”

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OCTOBER 2006
Vol. 6, No. 4
Front Page
CONTENTS

Women’s Leadership in American Sport: Progressing or Backsliding?

by Sheila Robertson

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