The UK Coaching System is Failing Women Coaches

Abstract

This paper engages with feminist cultural studies to illustrate how a cultural analysis of the coaching structure can contribute to our understanding of the underrepresentation of women in high performance coaching roles. Through the use of qualitative interviews with elite women coaches based in the UK, I highlight how the current coaching infrastructure and philosophies neglect women's potential and marginalise their position. My analysis of the interviews revealed that the participants report minimal or inappropriate coaching opportunities for women coaches. The participants were also provided little incentive, recognition or educational support to facilitate their development. Rather than a ‘glass ceiling’, I argue that women's progress through coaching is more comparable to a ‘bottle neck’ analogy whereby as women advance, most are excluded from positions of power through flawed pathways and few chances to coach. I conclude that the failures of the various UK sporting governing bodies to provide adequate coach development and education for women coaches are indicative of the gendered culture and organisation of sport.