Title IX was passed in 1972 to help improve work situations for women and eliminate sex discrimination in school programs receiving federal funding. This led to an increase in female athletes from 300,000 in 1972 to 2 million in 1993, but a decrease in women coaches from 90% in 1971 to 42% in 2007. Women coaches used to dominate the field of women’s basketball and now their presence is being taken over by men coaches, and their numbers continue to drop. Title IX also led to an increase in pay and benefits and even opened up more coaching jobs, but the positions were mostly taken by men.
Men have a tendency of obtaining most coaching jobs no matter if they are coaching men’s or women’s teams. The coaching world is mostly made up of friends who have been networking in the profession for a long time also known as the Old Boys Network. This is typically how most male athletic directors and coaches find people to hire for coaching positions.
Since many coaches are hired through the Old Boys Network, very few women have a chance of ever making it to the top. So when a Head/Assistant coaching position opens up, men are typically chosen for the job. Other reasons that women have disappeared from coaching sports is due to the need to spend more time with their children, divorce, burnout, and long hours.
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