Male Coaches of Female College Athletes:Career Experiences, Hiring Processes, Coaching Approaches, and Why Male CoachesBelieve More Males than Females Coach Women

Abstract

In 1972, when Title IX was signed into law, 90% of women’s college teams werecoached by women. The enactment and enforcement of Title IX led to an increase inmoney designated to women’s sporting programs. In many cases this has led to increasedpay for coaches resulting in more interest from male coaches to coach female teams(Pilon, 2015). Today the number of head female coaches of women’s teams hasdecreased to around 40% (Longman, 2017). There is a gap in the literature about the menwho are coaching nearly 60% of all female college athletic teams. The purpose of thisstudy was to understand the experiences of male head coaches of exclusively femaleteams. This study focused on factors that led these men to coach female athletes, thehiring process as an opposite gender candidate to the student-athletes, the philosophiesthat guide male coaches in the physical training of female athletes, how male coachesapproach the social and emotional characteristics of female athletes, and the perceptionsof male coaches related to why more males than females coach female athletes. Semistructured interviews revealed two themes with multiple subthemes. The first theme,securing a career within the competitive field of athletics, had seven subthemes: thedesire to have a profession in sports, the presence of more opportunities in women’ssports, having connections within the profession, the existence of informal interviewprocesses, the dominance of males among hiring administration, the perception thatwomen do not want to coach, and the physical training of female athletes. The secondtheme, maintaining a career within college women’s athletics, had six subthemes:discrimination against male coaches, affirmative action for female coaches, the emotionalcharacteristics of female athletes, the social and physical boundaries observed by male coaches, low salaries and funding for women’s sports, and the increased popularity andpressure in women’s sports.This study provided a contribution to the limited data pertaining to highereducation male athletics coaches of female athletes. The results of this study can beutilized by higher education administrators, athletic personnel, current coaches,individuals aspiring to be coaches, student athletes, and all stakeholders associated withthis specific and unexplored population.