Author ORCID Identifier
Degree Year
2022
Document Type
Thesis - Open Access
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies
Committee Member(s)
Al Evangelista
Keywords
Coach, Female coach, Equality in sports, Gender, Baseball, Basketball, Football, Sports, Athletics, Women who coach, Men's sports, Gender in sports
Abstract
In this paper, I set out to understand how women have been successful as coaches of men's sports at the Division III college level and above. This is important because despite a national increase in women playing sports after the passage of Title IX in 1972, there continues to be a glaring lack of women in coaching positions, especially within men’s sports. Existing scholarship highlights social barriers to reaching these positions, however there is very little information about the women who do achieve success in this field. Four coaches from men's baseball, basketball, and football teams were interviewed in order to gain perspective on what has been crucial to their success, as well as the structural issues within athletics that present barriers to women being successful coaches. I found that mentorships and support systems are crucial in order to access opportunities in coaching, and that there are several physical and cultural environments within sports that hinder these opportunities. The final chapter explores how to move forward in order to create more opportunities for women to coach men's sports at the highest levels. This research is necessary as athletics move forward in the name of progress, and as we begin to see higher numbers of women involved in positions of power in men's sports.
Repository Citation
Widran, Kira, "Moving the Chains on Men's Sports: An Analysis of Successful Female Coaches" (2022). Honors Papers. 850.
https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/honors/850
