Honan Bowl Games 2001

The Chronicle of Higher Education, June 8, 2001

Female Coaches Lag in Pay and Opportunities to Oversee Men's Teams

Jennifer Jacobson

Female coaches have it rough. Fewer women, on a proportional basis, are in the coaching ranks than ever before in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, according to The Chronicle's annual survey of gender-equity data published under the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act of 1994.

In 1999-2000, Division I had more men -- 1,394, according to the 320 colleges surveyed -- than women (1,245) as the head coaches of women's teams. And very few women coach men's teams: Only 57 women were listed as the head coaches of men's teams last year, and virtually all of them coached both men and women in sports like golf and swimming.

Also, coaches of women's teams still earn far less on average than coaches of men's teams, so women are therefore shut out of most of the best-paying jobs in college sports.

Changes Since the 70's

Last year, the average salary for coaches of women's teams in Division I was $38,191, while coaches of men's teams earned an average of $61,534. Assistant coaches of women's teams earned on average $18,623, while their counterparts on men's teams earned $30,584.

This contrasts sharply with the 1970's, when women held virtually all of the coaching positions in women's sports, according to the studies of trends in women's sports that Linda Jean Carpenter and R. Vivian Acosta at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York have been doing since that time.

A decade ago, says Ms. Carpenter, who is now retired from her position as a professor of physical education, she would have attributed the low numbers of female coaches generally to gender discrimination. But today, she says, women have a much greater menu from which to choose a career.

"So assertive, self-confident women who would make a great coach also have the option to be lawyers, doctors, and businesspeople," she says.

The intense demands of the job may cause others to leave the field to raise families, says Becky S. Madden, head coach of Valparaiso University's women's volleyball team. The early-morning and late-night practices and the heavy travel for games and recruiting take a toll, she says. Still, Ms. Madden is not ready to write off discrimination as a factor.

Like other universities, she says, Valparaiso has a "good-old-boy" system made up of alumni from as far back as the 1940's who are now university employees, and who don't see the need to hire women.

"Coaching women's sports, you need to understand the emotional side of what women go through, to be a role model," Ms. Madden says.

William Steinbrecher, Valparaiso's athletics director, denies that an old-boy network controls hiring and says Ms. Madden is not in any position to evaluate if one exists. He says the university has a goal of hiring more female and minority head coaches, but the applicant pool is just too small.

When Valparaiso hired its women's basketball coach roughly eight years ago, Mr. Steinbrecher says, no women applied. When the job opens again, he says, the university will try hard to find a woman.

But the candidate must be qualified for the job, he says. "We're not going to take a woman who's not as good as one of the other applicants just to take a woman. We'd hope that it would be a woman. We'd hope it'd be an African-American, Spanish-speaking coach. That's a triple minority right there."

'Uh-oh'

Before more female coaches are hired, though, attitudes need to change. Ask Chuck Bell, San Jose State University's athletics director.

When he hired Nancy Lewis to coach the university's men's and women's golf teams three years ago, he thought she was the best person for the job. But some old-time fans and past coaches of the men's team thought it was heresy to hire a woman to coach men.

"They said it wouldn't work, wouldn't be successful," he says.

Some players agreed. "I was like, uh-oh," says John Witherall, a senior who was then a freshman on San Jose State's golf team. "I didn't think it would work out with a female coach. I had never heard of a female coaching a men's team in golf."

But it has worked, says Mr. Witherall, who adds that Ms. Lewis has taught him a lot about golf.

Ms. Lewis, a San Jose State alumna who played on the women's team that won an N.C.A.A. title in 1987, says that golf is a technical game, so the sex of the coach is irrelevant.

Mr. Bell says his university is trying to make its coaching staff more diverse; in the past two years it has hired black head coaches -- two women and a man -- for its softball, football, and women's basketball teams.

The university has no head-coaching jobs free right now, but Mr. Bell says when they do open up, he "wouldn't hesitate a lick" to hire a woman to coach a men's team.

Don't hold your breath waiting for San Jose State's first female head football coach, though, says Mr. Bell: Most women don't have the background for that job.

COACHES OF WOMEN'S TEAMS (table in original)

Title IX does not require that coaches of women's and men's teams be paid the same amount. However, pay for women's coaches still lags far behind that for coaches of men's teams. Average salaries are calculated by the total number of coaches, not the number of full-time equivalents.

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