Enhancing participation pathways for women coaches in community sport

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• Research purpose
• Research methodology
• Key findings
• What can you do about it?
• Access the full report

Research purpose

The research explored the key barriers experienced by women coaches, including selection and development pathways, and identified recommendations for both sport governing bodies and community sporting clubs to provide further support for women coaches at a community sporting level.

This research was undertaken by La Trobe University, funded through the Change Our Game Research Grants Program. It was conducted in partnership with Northern Football Netball League, Basketball Victoria and Football Victoria. It was released in February 2024.

Research methodology

The research had 3 stages:

1. Detailed content analysis of the policies and practices of each sport organisation in relation to the governance of sport coaching and their recruitment strategies for women coaches.
2. Structured interviews of key managers and staff from each organisation each focused on the efficacy of current recruitment practices for women coaches and their understanding of the barriers faced in increasing participation rates for women in coaching roles.
3. Semi structured face to face interviews with 20 current women coaches from each sport focused on their individual experiences in sport coaching.

Key findings

Women coaches experience a range of challenges and barriers as a community level coach. These influence their opportunities to take on coaching roles, through to their development pathway and remaining as a coach in sport. These include:

• Governance: Women and girls are not well represented in the governance networks that oversee community sport coaching.
• Culture: A culture of leadership dominated by men at club level, especially amongst club presidents, who make decisions about coaching appointments. Selection processes for coaches are very informal and do not provide a transparent process for women to apply or express interest for coaching roles.
• Policy: Lack of targeted strategies used by sport organisations to attract women and girls to coaching roles. Limited understanding of the messages that would resonate with prospective women coaches and policies to support a more inclusive environment for women coaches.
• Pathways: Women coaches struggle to navigate coaching pathways in comparison to men coaches, citing time constraints and the scheduling of coach training not accommodating care responsibilities. Women and girls often have unstable tenure in coaching appointments and experience a continual pressure to prove their worth as a coach compared to men coaches.

What can you do about it?

Select your industry below for recommendations.

Access the full report