Female Coaches

After reading the article “ All My Hopes and Dreams” By Kathernine M. Jamieson it got me researching female softball players and coaches. It was said in class that in 1970 90% of coaches were female, recorded in 2006 it was 42.4%. I wanted to find out why this was such a huge change in numbers. Research lead to articles on reasoning and story’s of coaches experiences. In a 2009 article a coach was venting how hard it was to gain respect by players and recognition because females are suppose to be nurturing and sympathetic. Later the article explains that males show a more powerful and dominating persona, making it easier to be a leader and putting trust in them. I have a female family member that played division I softball and now is a coach and teacher for a high school. When interviewing her about this topic she said that is was difficult to gain players and parents trust. The players wouldn’t listen to her because it was difficult building up confidence in her players even though she is a good coach and knows what she is talking about but since she is female it changes their perspective. The junior softball coach is male and she explained that her player’s responded more to him then her even though she is the varsity coach with more current collegiate experience. She loves her job and her team but has so much trouble doing the things she loves because she is female. This adds extra work to her job by making her work harder to be a good respected coach. My question is why does this happen? What in society made females less respected in sport then men. Why does almost every female have a stereotype attached to them and why cant we break free of this mold? We see the numbers change by 47.6% in 36 years at this rate coaching will be completely dominated by males. What can we do to stop this and help change these numbers?
-Jamie Ruiz
Section 6398