SHE CAN COACH wrote:
re: women getting into coaching
Here's the thing, y'all. Perhaps it IS easier for women to get interviews and maybe even get hired into entry-level/assistant positions. Fine. But the problem is that it is hard to KEEP women in coaching. There are so many reasons for this.
1. Double standards (Too nice and you're a pushover, too direct and you're a b*tch; too young and you're not qualified, too old and you're out of touch; too masculine and you're a lesbian/aggressive/bossy, too feminine and you won't be taken seriously/relegated to team mom/etc)
2. No "old boys network" for women (see: Letsrun, USTFCCCA convention speakers, etc)
3. S.A. preference for male coaches (society has taught us this)
4. Family/better pay elsewhere/kids/spouse's job
In regards to females getting head coaching jobs:
When admins say, "I want to hire the best," this automatically privileges male candidates. Why?
1. Men already hold 82% of WOMEN's XC/TF team head coaching jobs (
https://www.cehd.umn.edu/tuckercenter/research/womencoaches.html). So there are already more "qualified" men who have held similar positions already out there.
2. When we think of characteristics of a "good coach", we tend to think of stereotypically masculine words (strong, tough, smart, leadership, etc). When we see these characteristics in women, we have a few less-complimentary words (b*tch, butch, bossy, mean, screamer, etc). Also - if we see a woman who is more feminine, we doubt her competency because we have so few models of successful female coaches. It's such a tightrope we women walk on.
If you don't believe in affirmative action, then I see why you might be against giving "less qualified" women a chance. However, at some point, someone's gotta take a chance on these ladies and give them the leadership roles that they CAN thrive in if they feel supported, if they have the autonomy they need, and if they are treated as if they are competent.
Thank you for coming to my TEDtalk. Credit to the Tucker Center for a lot of this ish. They're great.