there aren't enough female coaches

in football. in sport. in general.

this is a known fact, but do we know why?

we’ve hypothesised many reasons – some of which include the cost of coaching licenses being too expensive, the lack of financial and job security, and the conflict between women having and raising children alongside a very demanding job.

let me add another hypothesis – the systems aren’t designed for women to even consider coaching.

i’m not talking about making coaching courses specific to coaching women, although that would definitely help given the fundamental differences between coaching men and women. i’m talking about trying to fit a square into a circle.

one thing that i’ve found women to be naturally competent at is building relationships. some might call these the ‘soft’ skills, but as someone recently corrected me, there’s nothing ‘soft’ about conflict resolution, building relationships, or convincing a teenager not to walk away from the sport when they’ve had a particularly hard week (thank you Wayne Goldsmith for the correction).

so why aren’t there more female coaches? i think part of the reason is because when we think of coaching, we think of the head coach. the lone coach who makes all the decisions. the lone coach who is front and centre, driving sessions. we don’t think about the coach behind the scenes – the one offering individualised feedback. the one offering insight knowledge into the wellbeing of their players. the one comforting and relating to a player who is struggling with their confidence.

coaching licensing is not tailored towards these coaches. they’re tailored towards becoming a head coach. towards tactics. towards having a style of play. towards designing and running sessions. and i think we’re losing a lot of potentially great coaches because of this.

when i was coaching a junior team, i convinced two of my teammates to assist me. they were brilliant. they were able to focus on the micro (individuals) while i focused on the macro (the team). they complemented me so well. when i asked them if they wanted to run a session or part of session, they vehemently said no. see, they had no desire to be front and centre. they were very happy to work in the shadows, offering feedback that i wasn’t able to, seeing things i didn’t see. but they were coaching. just not in the way we’re used to thinking about coaching.

what if coaching licenses were offered to the other career paths in football? for becoming an assistant coach? for becoming an analyst? a manager? would we see an increase in the number of women signing up to pursue a career in football beyond playing?

and how can we change our perception of coaching to encompass all coaching staff, not just the head coach? because if you ask any great head coach how they became so great, i guarantee most if not all would credit their support staff around them. but how many great assistant coaches do you know? let’s make these people visible. let’s celebrate their success along with the head coach. let’s make becoming an assistant coach visible, accessible, and appealing to more individuals. maybe then we might increase the number of female coaches.

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