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Post by jdrobbins on Dec 3, 2013 13:31:03 GMT -5
I am wondering why there are so few female staff coaches with the clubs in Georgia. The same goes for management and executive positions, including DOC, Executive Directors, et al.
Is it a lack of candidates? Is it a lack of opportunities? Is it a gender bias or some form of discrimination? And is there a noticeable tendency for coaching and management positions to be occupied by males and administrative and volunteer positions to be occupied by females?
I am sincerely interested in what this discussion may yield within the soccer community in Georgia and look forward to your thoughtful replies.
As a side note, I'm involved with a gender project for an international organization and am also actively trying to improve opportunities for girls locally. thanks for your input.
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Post by jash on Dec 3, 2013 14:12:18 GMT -5
As to DOC and other 'high level coaching' positions, I think the reason is the same as the question. There aren't many female coaches that can move up the ladder. I think there is decent representation of females on boards, but my experience is fairly limited.
At GA Soccer itself, there are some female staff, including the person who runs all of the GA Soccer tournaments -- a pretty high profile position.
But for coaches, it's pretty bleak for women. The reason is probably not something you'll ever know for sure, in its entirety. But gender bias clearly plays a role here. It would be interesting to poll parents and players (and other coaches and staff) to see if they truly have a preference for male or female coaches. I am sure the answers would be different depending on whether you hear from fathers or mothers, and even more different depending on whether you are polling the parents of boys or girls.
I personally am not deep enough in the organizations to know about any bias. There are others here (and do check back even up to a week from now, because people don't come here as much, but the discussions can be fantastic) who may have more direct experience.
As to my observations, as the father of a male player, in the years I've been going to practices and games I've seen zero female head coaches of boys teams, a handful of female assistants (only helped with warmups and such and then left), and only a handful of female coaches of girls teams (admittedly I haven't seen as many girls teams though).
Team managers are not as often 'team mom' as you might think. There are lots of male team managers.
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Post by jash on Dec 3, 2013 14:14:18 GMT -5
Oh, and my personal preference? I would not have an issue with a female coach for my son. My only criteria is the quality of the training and coaching, and I don't think gender has any bearing on either of those.
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Post by Soccerhouse on Dec 3, 2013 14:37:20 GMT -5
our clubs administrator is female and we have good representation on the board with females.
only have 2 current female coaches, and to be honest, its been tough finding them. its obvious at the younger ages with girls, they really do light up with female coaches and respond differently (can be good and bad). But for the most part our club wants more female coaches, but have had a few misses in the past. they had hired some women that just were not ready to balance a career and coaching together.
our club also tends to have coaches that have played professional or are from overseas, either central/south america or Europe and regardless of sex, the coaching expectations are set high for every team regardless of the level of the team. coaches that aren't committed to the club have not been retained from year to year.
i think you will start seeing this change, as clubs top players come back from graduating college and are looking into coaching at their youth clubs that developed them. That being said, whether male or female they would have to be qualified.
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Post by spectator on Dec 3, 2013 14:47:08 GMT -5
Same question can apply to anything - why aren't there more female CEO's, Engineers, Generals, Senators?
I don't think it has as much to do with gender equality or any kind of bias but with the choices women make in their lives. Example - I'm a working mother - have been since my kid was 3 months old. My choice was to continue to work in my career BUT I also made choices that allowed me to be home more rather than travel and be away from my family. Had I stayed on the career path I was on prior to having my child, maybe I would have been a senior VP by now or eventually a CEO - it was my choice not to go that route. My choice has allowed me a very flexible work schedule in a job I like and can balance with this crazy life of a soccer parent.
In business and politics, same choices apply. You may have the most capable and competent woman for the job but it may be her choice not to accept it. Where some may see that as a sign of weakness or gender inequality, I find the fact that women can make these decisions for what is best for them and their families very empowering and positive. Just like in soccer - not every kid is an elite national level player - not every woman wants to be the boss.
Back to soccer coaches, the female coaches I've met range from young women fresh off the college pitch to seasoned high school coaches coaching youth soccer (meaning not high school age kids). My daughter has had both male and female coaches - the worst of the bunch was a male coach who back in his day was a phenomenal player but sucked as a coach. I think - as in my personal example above - it would be difficult for a female coach with young children to take on more teams or responsibilities but it would be her choice to do or not to do so based on her personal situation.
Now - why aren't there more women as DOC's - good question. I do think it's still a good old boys club and would be a very difficult nut to crack - but if the right female candidate is out there, she does deserve the same opportunity as her male counterparts - if she wants that kind of job. Now, would the male coaches in a club with a female DOC handle that - probably some would and some would not - same as in business. The old cliche about female bosses goes both ways - I've worked for great women and horrible ones - I've had amazing male bosses and downright incompetent ones as well. Gender isn't the issue - ability and desire for the job are.
In the case of your question - I'm willing to bet the pool of women with the desire for coaching positions or DOC positions is just smaller than the pool of men.
Curious - what is the gender project you're working on? I'd be interested in hearing more about that - I can get pretty passionate about working moms and our fight for 'equality' in some areas, too.
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Post by jdrobbins on Dec 3, 2013 23:30:40 GMT -5
Thanks so much for your insight. I'm looking forward to more thoughtful replies. (so refreshing!)
And thanks for asking ... I'm happy to share.
I am on the board for streetfootballworld (www.streetfootballworld.org) based in Berlin. I represent my organization, Soccer in the Streets. We have been a member of the network since 2004. streetfootballworld brings together and supports organizations that use soccer/football to change the world (to put it simply.)
We have a gender working group that has developed a gender strategy that is cross-cutting and multi-level. That is, it affects programs, operations, governance, all aspects of organizations, at all levels of the network - from individual network members, to the streetfootballworld organization (front office) itself, and strives to influence all actors in the football world. Pretty exciting stuff.
This led to some soul-searching about our own organization and what we were doing to "walk the walk" and it was agreed that we weren't doing nearly enough. Thus, my quest to find info and answers to how we can tackle the issues. no small feat.
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Post by lovethegame on Dec 4, 2013 12:20:17 GMT -5
I've noticed there aren't many women coaching at our club. I have heard the that the club would like to have more women coaches. They've hired them, but they have left for one reason or another. However, if you look at the college level it seems to me that women are well represented there. Men still outnumber women, but there are many programs coached by women.
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