Coaching Gender Bias in Collegiate Division I Swimming and Diving

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By Alice McCall

Compared to other Division I collegiate sports, swimming and diving seems to have a definite gender imbalance within head coach roles. According to the Tucker Center of The University of Minnesota, in season 2018-2019 only 16% of head coaches in swimming were female. Comparing this with other Division I collegiate sports that is the second-lowest, just ahead of Alpine Skiing which has eleven Division I collegiate programs throughout the nation, versus 194 swimming and diving programs. (Tucker Center, Dr. LaVoi)

Given this rather surprising observation, what can we do to ensure that our sport will benefit from a greater coaching diversity and encourage recruitment and retainment of young female talent into our sport. Notwithstanding the early mornings and afternoon schedules of the majority of programmes, are there other less obvious reasons why the percentage of female head coaches is so low compared to careers in many other walks in life, or indeed other Division I collegiate sports.

If our sport is to thrive and progress, we need to positively encourage both young female and male talent to view coaching as a worthwhile and rewarding career, providing both financial and personal reward of a lifelong career supporting and mentoring our young athletes. As in most aspects of life, we know that a more diverse working community would ensure that expertise from more senior coaches would be passed down, and youthful energy and talent would combine to create fresh ideas and approaches to stimulate and motivate our athletes.

So, how can we start to address the current imbalance and make progress towards the 30, 40, 50% range. There are many national organizations supported at a local level by collegiate administration that work hard to help women achieve their goals, yet each year published stats show that women in our sport are falling to make significant inroads in the wider head coaching community.

Whilst respecting equal gender rights, is it likely that women themselves are choosing to avoid the non-family friendly hours of early mornings and weekend workloads or is this just a common stereotype which is often used as a convenient distraction and inhibitor to change. Maybe the answer is to explore a better integration of athletic schedules with academic schedules, or coach rostering to re balance the early start and late finish providing the option for more family time. For example, Minnesota have previously tried a no morning regime with some success. Perhaps we just need to look at these challenges with an open mind.

Either way, even if it is just too difficult to overturn what has become the norm in the short term, we need to accept that unless we make our sport attractive to young talent, we are in danger of not developing and ultimately replacing the existing talent who are approaching retirement and natural attrition. Young coaches are making a career choice and are seeing some of their peers burning out by the time they’re in their late 20’s. They look up the greasy pole of career progression and realize there aren’t many women that have made it, or it seems that way statistically. This is demotivating for our young coaches. Not many people would invest their lives into something that they see hasn’t worked out positively for others.

Whilst I can speak from personal experience, and I have received outstanding support and I am actively involved in mentoring programs (both formal and informal), I have come to realize that I am one of the fortunate few. I see my career as a Division I collegiate coach and look forward to a long and satisfying career.