Percentage of Women Coaches Drops

[StClone]

The percentage of female-led women’s college basketball programs had dropped from 79 percent in 1977 to 59 percent in 2018. Two articles on the subject don't seem to have a definite solution, though the personalities of top coaches cited give their useful (read bickering) input.

WBB is of heightened appeal for many here and so this should be of interest:

"McGraw, the only female head coach at last year’s Final Four, was quoted saying, “People are hiring too many men” to coach women’s college sports. She gave a one-word answer – “No” – when asked if she had any plans to hire another male assistant coach."

https://www.indystar.com/story/spor...ants-see-more-women-coaches-hired/3324837002/

"She’s watched those who are hired deal with both systemic and targeted discrimination and harassment. She’s seen how, when women get fired, second chances are hard to come by. And she knows firsthand what it’s like to deal with a level of scrutiny that their male counterparts could never imagine — from focus on their looks, to a policing of their anger. Unparalleled success isn’t enough to stave off the never-ending questioning of their priorities and vision."

https://thinkprogress.org/this-top-womens-college-basketball-coach-is-done-hiring-men-5f3b6d06609b/

Hope this discussion doesn't turn into a pissing match on which WBB Coach is most likely to be a Salem retread. And instead, it should illustrate what could be considered a negative trend for female head coaches.

 

[pulse]

Wasn’t this posted in another thread? You didn’t actually post anything as to what you actually thought on the subject as to start a discussion. And I wouldn’t say “many”

 

[NWICY]

Hire the best coach you can afford. Their sex doesn't matter.

 

[BoxsterCy]

Iowa State carries ten women's sports teams and only three are coached by women (includes my assumption that Rudolph coaches the women's cross country). Nationwide 90% of women's sports teams were coached by women in 1972 but that has fallen to only 42% in 2018. This is just a weird trend and we are even worse than the average and the average is bad.

 

[SoapyCy]

As an American and a typical CF user, I didn't read the article. But I know from conversations I have about WBB people DO talk about looks and they think "a b!tch" is different than "an assh0le" even though they might both treat players the same way.

 

[SECyclone]

The percentage of female-led women’s college basketball programs had dropped from 79 percent in 1977 to 59 percent in 2018. Two articles on the subject don't seem to have a definite solution, though the personalities of top coaches cited give their useful (read bickering) input.

WBB is of heightened appeal for many here and so this should be of interest:

"McGraw, the only female head coach at last year’s Final Four, was quoted saying, “People are hiring too many men” to coach women’s college sports. She gave a one-word answer – “No” – when asked if she had any plans to hire another male assistant coach."

https://www.indystar.com/story/spor...ants-see-more-women-coaches-hired/3324837002/

"She’s watched those who are hired deal with both systemic and targeted discrimination and harassment. She’s seen how, when women get fired, second chances are hard to come by. And she knows firsthand what it’s like to deal with a level of scrutiny that their male counterparts could never imagine — from focus on their looks, to a policing of their anger. Unparalleled success isn’t enough to stave off the never-ending questioning of their priorities and vision."

https://thinkprogress.org/this-top-womens-college-basketball-coach-is-done-hiring-men-5f3b6d06609b/

Hope this discussion doesn't turn into a pissing match on which WBB Coach is most likely to be a Salem retread. And instead, it should illustrate what could be considered a negative trend for female head coaches.

I would say a lot of that is maybe in the 70's men only wanted to be involved in coaching male teams. A lot more coaches to pick from now. Hire the best one you can find IMO.

 

[Knownothing]

I would say a lot of that is maybe in the 70's men only wanted to be involved in coaching male teams. A lot more coaches to pick from now. Hire the best one you can find IMO.

This 100 percent. Back in the day it was kind of non masculine for a guy to coach a girls team and the future was bleak and no money in it. Now the coaches are making more money and it's acceptable. So with way more men playing basketball than women. It's natural that more men would be coaching than women.

 

[Cyclad]

As an American and a typical CF user, I didn't read the article. But I know from conversations I have about WBB people DO talk about looks and they think "a b!tch" is different than "an assh0le" even though they might both treat players the same way.

You are correct. You see it in all areas, sports, business politics etc. Different standard - very inappropriate.
That is the reason I call Mulkey an ass**** and not a *****.

 

[psyclone51]

To those who suggest that teams simply hire the best candidate miss what I humbly suggest are two very important considerations. First, when women compete with men for a coaching spot, they are judged differently. So, it is impossible to line up a group of male and female candidates and expect them to compete on a level playing field. It simply does not happen.

Second, our daughters need role models to show them what they are capable of when they enter the job market. Don't get me wrong. There are a lot of great men coaching women's teams. And they are doing all that they can to help their players become all that they can be. An obvious case in point is Bill Fennelly mentoring Briget Carleton.

But our daughters should be able to aspire to the same great things that our sons do. I recently had a conversation with a young Ph.D. student in astrophysics. She explained to me what it meant to her that Donna Strickland won the 2018 Nobel Prize for Physics. She said it showed her that she truly can aspire to great things, because Donna Strickland showed the way. I suspect that many women playing college sports feel the same way. Successful women coaches send the same signal to female athletes that Donna Strickland sent to female physicists.

 

[runbikeswim]

Honestly, it is a double standard. Hire the best coaches, whatever....somehow men can coach women, but women cannot coach men....

 

[SoapyCy]

To those who suggest that teams simply hire the best candidate miss what I humbly suggest are two very important considerations. First, when women compete with men for a coaching spot, they are judged differently. So, it is impossible to line up a group of male and female candidates and expect them to compete on a level playing field. It simply does not happen.

Second, our daughters need role models to show them what they are capable of when they enter the job market. Don't get me wrong. There are a lot of great men coaching women's teams. And they are doing all that they can to help their players become all that they can be. An obvious case in point is Bill Fennelly mentoring Briget Carleton.

But our daughters should be able to aspire to the same great things that our sons do. I recently had a conversation with a young Ph.D. student in astrophysics. She explained to me what it meant to her that Donna Strickland won the 2018 Nobel Prize for Physics. She said it showed her that she truly can aspire to great things, because Donna Strickland showed the way. I suspect that many women playing college sports feel the same way. Successful women coaches send the same signal to female athletes that Donna Strickland sent to female physicists.

Totally off topic, but I do not follow awards or national trend setters in my profession. Do most people do that and I'm unique or do most people not follow that stuff?

 

[dualthreat]

If you're against sexism, you should be against this openly sexist woman.

She's not pro equality, she's pro women and theres a big difference.

 

[StClone]

Wasn’t this posted in another thread? You didn’t actually post anything as to what you actually thought on the subject as to start a discussion. And I wouldn’t say “many”

Wasn’t this posted in another thread? You didn’t actually post anything as to what you actually thought on the subject as to start a discussion. And I wouldn’t say “many”

I did not see this posted elsewhere and apologize if that is an offense. It was not posted in the WBB Forum where the many I refer to reside.

Article has more to say of value than I do on the trend, of which I was unaware. So, I thought you may want to get it from a source.

 

[Knownothing]

Honestly, it is a double standard. Hire the best coaches, whatever....somehow men can coach women, but women cannot coach men....

Women can’t coach men because of recruiting. It’s not their ability to do X’s and O’s. It’s the ability to get top players to
Come play for them.

 

[acoustimac]

I suspect one factor in the increase of men coaches is the pay is now more lucrative. Def makes coaching the women’s sports more attractive to much larger pool obviously including men.

 

[psyclone51]

Totally off topic, but I do not follow awards or national trend setters in my profession. Do most people do that and I'm unique or do most people not follow that stuff?

Yours is a good question, and I suspect different professions take a different approach. But in some professions - and the young woman I referred to is in academia - awards and national and international stature are very big deals. But that is a very specific situation. However, I do not think that having successful mentors and role models is unique to any one field or profession.

 

[mwwbbfan]

Second, our daughters need role models to show them what they are capable of when they enter the job market. Don't get me wrong. There are a lot of great men coaching women's teams. And they are doing all that they can to help their players become all that they can be. An obvious case in point is Bill Fennelly mentoring Briget Carleton.

This is true but also of note was how BC in her senior video points out how close her relationship is with Coach Steyer. Men can coach women's teams but they also need to have strong role models (like Coach Steyer) for the young ladies to lean on when needed.

 

[LarryISU]

So, from what I understand, Notre Dame's McGraw feels that people have been closed-minded to hiring a certain type of person as a coach for women's basketball. So her response is to close her mind to hiring a certain type of person as a coach for her women's basketball team.

I'm amazed how many people are irrational, hypocritical, and yet generally respected as a voice of reason.

 

[CloneFan4]

Rabble rabble rabble, virtue signal

 

[Cyclad]

Rabble rabble rabble, virtue signal

To those who suggest that teams simply hire the best candidate miss what I humbly suggest are two very important considerations. First, when women compete with men for a coaching spot, they are judged differently. So, it is impossible to line up a group of male and female candidates and expect them to compete on a level playing field. It simply does not happen.

Second, our daughters need role models to show them what they are capable of when they enter the job market. Don't get me wrong. There are a lot of great men coaching women's teams. And they are doing all that they can to help their players become all that they can be. An obvious case in point is Bill Fennelly mentoring Briget Carleton.

But our daughters should be able to aspire to the same great things that our sons do. I recently had a conversation with a young Ph.D. student in astrophysics. She explained to me what it meant to her that Donna Strickland won the 2018 Nobel Prize for Physics. She said it showed her that she truly can aspire to great things, because Donna Strickland showed the way. I suspect that many women playing college sports feel the same way. Successful women coaches send the same signal to female athletes that Donna Strickland sent to female physicists.

Great post.
I tried many times to link Muffet McGraws video. I am, however technically incompetent. Great “speech!” I have a daughter and a granddaughter and totally agree with Muffet. Powerful speech, deals with the bigger picture, well beyond basketball.
My favorite women’s basketball teams are now 1) ISU 2) Notre Dame 3) anybody playing eiu 4) anybody playing Baylor.