Wow. I can’t believe those statistics. Well, I guess I can actually and that’s the sad part.  After contemplating going into coaching myself last year I can tell you why I didn’t and possibly at the same time help to explain why many women are reluctant to go into coaching or stay with coaching.

Lacrosse is my passion and coaching is where I excel, however I want to have a life outside of my work and from watching and being there myself for 5 years I know at least for many of the coaches I’ve known – their sport is their life.  It’s hard to have a life while coaching and I’m not saying it’s not possible, but it makes things more difficult if you’re traveling to games, practicing, watching film, recruiting, organizing finances and keeping thirty plus young women in check and trust me these young women need to be kept in check especially when they’re young. I was one of them . It’s even harder if you have a family, which I would assume is why many women that start in coaching, drop out of coaching. Although times have changed a bit, many women who work are still responsible for domestic duties and in an occupation like coaching, this becomes very difficult to balance due to the amount of time away from home required. Furthermore, if my job is going to be my life and take me away from my family I would at least hope to get paid well and as a women’s coach that is unfortunately very unlikely. If I were to make it to the top and was coaching at a big name University with a winning team I still wouldn’t be making a lot of money and certainly wouldn’t be making as much money as a men’s coach at a mid-size University with a decent team. So, I think that’s hard for women to make that choice and to sacrifice family time and financial security for their passion to coach. 

I’m not sure how to change it unless salaries on the women’s side are increased. I would assume there are many other factors that go into the dropping percentage of women in coaching, but this was my take on it. Any other ideas?