Being a Woman Coach in a Man's World

Imagine this.

The new head football coach is hired at the high school. He steps into his new role eagerly and is ready to go through the inventory of equipment he has to work with and make a list of things that need to be purchased. He realizes that he does not have access to any of his equipment because its location and can only access things by asking one of the assistants to go into the room for him.

That would seem absolutely ridiculous, right?

Now reverse that. A WOMAN is hired as the head cross country coach but she cannot access any of her equipment because it is currently being stored in the boy's locker room. That's my situation.

Now, the school I work in is in some serious need of upgrades, including updates in gender and handicap equality to the bathrooms/locker rooms and a lot of people are doing the best they can with what they have to work with. But quite honestly, this situation is put on the back burner because it is not seen as an "absolutely essential" situation. I do believe if this were reversed and the football coach could not access his equipment then this would be looked at with different eyes.

Here's another one.

Imagine that a new head coach is hired for the girls softball team. The man steps up and introduces himself as...let's go with Bob. And Bob says, "I'm excited to work with the girls. I played baseball and was an All American at some college. I have 10 years experience coaching baseball and have won two state championships so I can bring a lot of experience to lead the team."

Sounds like a great hire to me!

Now let's reverse that. A new baseball coach is hired. The woman steps up and introduces herself as...let's go with Amy. And Amy says, "I'm excited to work with the boys. I played softball and was an All American at some college. I have 10 years experience coaching softball and have won two state championships so I can bring a lot of experience to lead the team."

Ummmm...a girl baseball coach? 

But the games are totally different? The pitching styles aren't even the same! The ball isn't the same size let alone the same COLOR and the bases are different distances apart! I ask you to think about it...what is the difference in a man with baseball experience coaching softball from a woman with softball experience coaching baseball? I would argue that every coach has something to learn about different skills within their sport and aren't experts at everything. It's society's preconceived idea of what is socially acceptable and not is what is the difference between these two situations.

An article in Forbes magazine written by Kim Elsesser summarizes what has happened with women in coaching positions. View the article here.

"In 1972, just prior to Title IX, women held 90% of the head coaching positions for the women's teams. Title IX forced colleges and universities (at least those receiving federal funds) to provide equal funding for men's and women's sports. Although this was a big boon for female college athletes, it had the exact opposite impact on female coaches. When Title IX was enacted, money flooded into women's sports, and universities were forced to offer significantly higher salaries to coaches for these teams. Suddenly, men were interested in these jobs. And they were hired."

So now we bring more women into sports (awesome!!) and push out coaches who are women (crap!!). We actually have made NEGATIVE progress. Not just no progress. We moved BACKWARDS. My entire life I've been coached by men. I've had some amazing coaches that taught me very valuable skills in everything from building perseverance, getting back up when you fall, learning from mistakes and having confidence. But my entire athletic career I've been missing something. I've never had a coach to mentor me through experiences that were specific to young girls. 

Someone to explain to me how athletics and my changing body could work together.

Someone to explain to me how to identify someone who was trying to take advantage of me.

Someone to model a healthy adult lifestyle that I could relate to.

Someone to give me advice on how to handle sports and having a period (or lack of one).

Someone to identify early signs of unhealthy habits.

Someone to show me how to have a healthy body image.

I know it's possible for a man to do this. Some men do it all the time and they do an amazing job. But if you think about your prior coaches, current coaches, your daughter's coaches, potential coaches, friend's coaches; how many of them would you have been comfortable going to and saying that you are scared because you have been bleeding heavy for two weeks, your cramps are painful and you are trying your best but you are bogged down with who you thought was your friend who blocked you from her Finsta account and your parents are in the process of getting a divorce. I know, that's dramatic and actually a combination of a few different athletes I have coached but even something as simple as, "Coach I haven't gotten my period in three months, is that normal?" Would the coaches you know be willing to sit down and address the problem or brush it off to the nearest female or put hands up in defense saying they can't relate to the situation?

If you are coaching females this has to be a conversation YOU are willing to have. Somehow in society it became acceptable for girls to lose their periods when involved in athletics. THIS. IS. NOT. SUPPOSED. TO. HAPPEN. PERIOD. (See that pun there!) This is a female's body yelling for attention, "Hey girl, you are missing something to keep me healthy!" More vegetables, more calories, too much school stress, more sleep, more iron...it could be a lot of things. Go look up the female triad and relative energy deficiency for ALL athletes (not just the girls, boys need to be healthy and happy too). Just Google it and you will receive more information than you know what to do with. 

So why aren't more females in coaching? Well, it can be a bit of a boy's club out there. In every coaching clinic I've been to from the WSTCA clinic in Wisconsin, to the Track and Football Consortium in Illionois to the USATF Level 2 training in Florida...females have been in the minority. When I go to meets I've been ignored during meetings, I've had coaches walk by me to talk to a group of male coaches and my fellow peers from other schools often go up to my male assistant coaches first when they have a head coach question. At times I've even had coaches I work with say things to me that completely undermine the level of knowledge I have, "hey if you want to learn something go talk to blah blah blah at this school." The intentions were well-meaning but it came off as quite offensive. On the cross country bus I've had the person directing parking for the buses tell me to "tell my coach" where to set-up the team tent and when the course opened for warm-ups. I'm almost 30 you guys, my face is weathered from all of the hours I've spent training outside in the elements of winter and summer. I don't look like a high schooler, but in that moment, that woman thought it was more plausible for me to be an athlete sitting in the front seat than the coach! I don't blame women for not wanting to get involved in that world. You develop a reputation really quickly as "that female coach" voicing her opinion again. It's soul crushing and honestly very lonely at times. I'm not going to let that frustration of my past experiences dictate my choices though and swim in a sea of self-pity and blame, I'm going to use that as a valuable learning experience about human interaction and how I can be empowered in these interactions in the future.

We still live in a society where a woman who is determined, confident and assertive is considered more of a "bitch" than a "strong leader." I urge you to think about what you wish you would have had for a role model when you were younger. I urge you to think about if you had a daughter or a friend, what would you want for them? Even if it is a small step, let's make progress.

www.runwithcoachfischer.com