The underrepresentation of women coaches in high-performance sports

In recent years, the popularity of professional women’s sports has soared. We’ve seen the expansion of women’s AFL, the creation of the women’s Indian Premier League in cricket, as well as things like the 2023 FIFA women’s world cup and the 2023 women’s rugby league season added to the prime-time television schedule.

However, behind the screen, underrepresentation of women coaches remains, according to new research published in the International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching and led by UNE’s Dr. Ben Serpell, Professor Christian Cook, and colleagues Darlene Harrison and Rae Dower.

We recently had a chat to Dr. Serpell, Lecturer in the School of Science, to better understand why this situation continues to exist, and the implications it has for elite sports. See what he had to say below.

What are the key takeaways from this research?

It is really important to realize that diversity brings innovation, and innovation often brings success. However, in sports, diversity is lacking, and we note that if we cannot achieve appropriate representation across genders, what hope do we have to achieve appropriate representation and diversity across other minority groups? This paper is written in the context of underrepresentation of coaches that identify as women, however it highlights that diversity across many groups is lacking.

We discuss leadership development and highlight that often we can perpetuate issues that surround underrepresentation of women by singling women out. Development opportunities and programs should be individualized and ensure all people, including people w