Improving Gender Equity in Sports Coaching

Book excerpt: The sport coaching profession has historically been and continues to be a White male-dominated occupation and this remains a global issue. This imbalance persists despite an improvement in wider social attitudes and legislation towards equality and diversity within many societies, and despite the action by sporting organisations and national governing bodies. Within the research literature, the underrepresentation of women in sport coaching is a well-documented issue with a number of research studies highlighting the experiences and impact of being in the minority for women coaches. The issue of gender inequity in sport coaching is a long-standing one and shows little sign of changing significantly anytime soon. Therefore, a new approach is needed, one that draws on the knowledge and evidence we have to create actionable, sustainable, deep-rooting interventions that challenge the issue of gender equity at its very core. The overall purpose of Improving Gender Equity in Sports Coaching is to take an action or forward-thinking approach about what works, or could work, to improve the recruitment, development, or promotion of women sport coaches. The book brings together a global group of esteemed scholars working in this subject area. In this book, we have brought together not just the insight but also a collection of strategies and recommendations as to how this research could be or has been utilised to make our sport coaching envrionment places where all coaches feel as though they belong. As such, this ground-breaking book is a must read not just for students and researchers of gender equity in sport but also for policy and decision-makers working in sport.