Collin Lockett

Ms. Coco
English 1001
11 April 2016
Audience: Female coaches and sport analysts
Preface: I am finding sources with statistics all over and I am getting valid information so that is
a strong point. Now in order to put this all together I will have to think harder and put the time
in. I know that I will struggle with developing my paper because I really have a hard time putting
a lot of information together. I will make this piece strong in the end with plenty of information. I
am also having a rough time with how to start my paper. Are my subheadings appropriate for my
audience? Are my paragraphs developed well? Was my information organized correctly?

Underrepresentation of Women in College Basketball

When I played basketball in high school I had a female assistant coach. She was a former
player for my high school who was well known around the community. My assistant coach was
one of the toughest women I ever met and she showed true strength in practice. She would get all
in my face when I wasnt giving it my all and she had the passion of a head coach. I still feel to
this day that she garnered the most respect and she was the piece to complete the team. She
gathered all the other players attention as well as mine with her knowledge of the game. My
former assistant coach created the teams defensive scheme which basically generated our
offense. This defense led to most of our wins during the season because she had us well prepared
for the games. With no disrespect for my former head coach I feel that she was the one who
should have been the head of the team. This past reasoning has led me to question why are there
no female coaches in college basketball.
The underrepresentation of women coaches in college basketball is starting to become a
yearly norm. The 2007-2008 season statistically helped proved this theory. Although women

took up half of womens college basketballs coaching positions they werent nearly as much in
mens college basketball. The numbers were staggering in womens college basketball, females
took up 65.8% of assistant positions and 57.4% of head coaching positions. As to mens college
basketball women took up 0.01% of assistant coaching positions and 0.0% of head coaching
positions. These number proves that women arent represented as much in mens college
basketball than womens college basketball. (Walker and Bopp 48)
The Glass Wall
Many women are too afraid to apply for a mens head coaching job because they fear that
they wont succeed in it. "They're not interested [in coaching men's college basketball] because
they feel they're not going to get the opportunity, that it's already a closed door" (Walker & Bopp,
2011, p. 59). This quote explains from a womens point of view what they are expecting when
head coaching jobs for men become available. Walker and Bopp points out a situation in which
women feel that men are discriminating against them and the selection process of hiring a head
coach is strictly man-to man meaning they go into the process with a closed mind. Many of the
women believed that this old boys network was detrimental to their acceptance into mens
basketball. One participant believed that if people know you, and they like you, theyre going to
want to be able to help network you. Women need to network more and increase social
networks . . . old girls clubs. Although this participant was very optimistic, the reality is that
most women are unable to establish a network in mens college basketball because the old boys
club is too exclusive and too influential. This excerpt from Walker and Bopps academic journal
provides insight on how people feel about the current situation with head coaching like there is
some sort of a wall to climb for women to get over the hump in terms of coaching. Most of the
time women arent even looking for a mans job which means theres no place for athletic

directors and NBA GMs to look. Relatively since women dont really have these manly jobs
there is no one who can influence and groom young females to grow up and want this job
because they have no one or nothing to look up to in terms of women coaching men.
Respect
There are many stereotypes that people put around the notion of having a female coach
and respect is one of the main ones. Male players won't want to play for women. They won't
respect them. They won't take orders from them. Women are too soft, too emotional, too fragile.
Even if they played the sport, they can't possibly understand it as well as their male counterparts
do. And, of course, women don't belong in the men's locker room. Mattox, Ready and Johnston
debunk all of those claims (Nicole Auerbach). Mattox, Ready and Johnston were all female
players back in their younger days and all had stints with coaching as they were assistants. These
three women felt like they wouldnt have been able to coach a males team alone because of their
gender. These claims probably demoralize women and young females dreams which puts fear
into their eyes of being a coach. From my past experiences I can tell you that respect goes a long
way in a locker room. When I had a female coach she first had to earn the respect of some of the
hard-headed players by fussing at them or making them suffer consequences for not listening,
like running suicides. To my knowledge females can only garner respect from men in sports if
they are tough and they know exactly how to play the sport. Respect isnt a problem to either
players or coaches as Travis Ford, a former player under Mattox, commented that she was seen
as just like one of the guys, except that it is kind of nice to smell her perfume (Szostak, 2009:
1). San Antonio Spurs coach had nothing but praise for his assistant Becky Hammond by saying,
"She's a leader, she's fiery, she's got high intelligence and our guys just respected the hell out of
her. She's out on the court, she's coaching with us, she's running drills, and so that's why we

made her a full-time person," he recently told KNBR radio. "I don't even look at her as, well
she's the first female this or that or the other. She's a coach and she's good at it," he added (Motez
Bishara). This should raise many questions because if there are players and coaches saying that
they respect them and they look at females like their another one of the guys then what is going
on. If female coaches can get praise on their coaching at the highest level why arent they being
offered smaller jobs like college basketball. This can also bring up the question of what exactly
has Title IX done to change the discrimination in college basketball.
What Impact Has Title IX Had on College Basketball?
Title IX reads, "[n]o person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded
from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any
education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance"(Ryan Richman 377). This
statement from Richmans academic journal outlines exactly what Title IX means for sports and
it correlates with the point I am trying to make of females being excluded from coaching college
basketball. The Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, charged with enforcing Title
IX, is underfunded and, despite the reluctance of schools to comply with gender equity, has never
pulled federal funding from schools or colleges that discriminate against women and girls.
(http://www.feminist.org/research/sports/sports2a.html). Title IX nor the government have not
helped changed anything in the coaching world for females but it has made a huge jump for
female athletes. Men are developing more interest in female coaching jobs because Title IX has
increased the participation of women in sports which actually developed more jobs (Walker and
Bopp 50). When Title IX was enacted in 1972, women coached 90% of women's athletic teams.
The 2004 study by Vivian Acosta and Linda J. Carpenter shows that in 2004, women coached
44.1% of women's athletic teams, slightly down from the 1998 number of 47.4%. Not only has

Title IX not impacted female coaches in the way it was intended to, but arguably has been a step
backwards for female coaches. Why does transparent discrimination continue for female
coaches? Because Title IX, the legislation most often relied on for equal opportunity litigation,
has proven to have inadequate remedies and penalties against such discrimination (Ryan
Richman 379). Since 1972 there has been a huge drop off with female coaches and Title IX was
supposed to be the breakthrough for equal opportunity. These statistics illustrated the fact that
men will continue to get hierarchy positions in coaching but woman will always struggle and be
marginalized in coaching college basketball (Walker and Bopp 50). This would make one say
that Title IX has impacted sports discrimination, but it hasnt affected sports in every possible
way it can. Title IX should be modified and shouldnt have any loopholes to create a door for
women to coach mens college basketball. A mans perspective is probably the most influential in
the hiring process which most likely had impact on what Title IX brings to sports.
What do the men think?
Walker and Sartore-Baldwin conducted an experiment in which they gathered multiple
participants who coached either men or womens basketball to interview. The experiment they
conducted went hand in hand with another source I acquired from the authors Walker and Bopp.
The main questions in the interview were mainly based on women coaching mens basketball
(Walker and Sartore-Baldwin 308). In order for the Walker and Sartore-Baldwin to find the
information they wanted they felt they had to use a phenomenological approach which is the
study of subjective experience. This states that they will analyze what these men think of women
coaching mens basketball from there past experiences and their thoughts on the subject matter at
hand. Specifically, this culture was acknowledged by most participants as being hyper-

masculine, gender exclusive, and resistant to change (Walker and Sartore-Baldwin 308). These
studies show what men who have been in the game think on women coaching.
The Masculine Culture
In the interviews that Walker and Sartore-Baldwin conducted the first thing most men
said was that there is a certain masculine culture when it comes to mens basketball. One
participant in particular described the masculinity in college basketball as, In the locker room,
on the floor, and in coaches players relationships masculinity is often toughness, the idea of
toughness, the idea of being a man, playing like a man. Those things are all prominent in college
basketball and then on coaching staffs there is a locker room mentality environment that exists
within the dynamics of a coaching staff. I have been to three different places and it has existed
like that at all three places. In my experience it has been a consistent thing, so to bring a woman
into that type of masculine environment would be uncomfortable for a lot of men. Men would
not want to do it because it is an old boys club to be honest and bringing a woman into that
would be a challenge (Walker and Sartore-Baldwin 309). The claim he is making is that females
have no business being a males coach because men wouldnt be comfortable around them. Other
coaches in the college basketball world seems to have no problem with women being in the sport
especially the great coach Rick Pitino who hired the first female assistant and didnt think twice
about it. These coaches would certainly bump heads in a conversation about females and their
abilities to coach men.
In conclusion, the underrepresentation of women coaching basketball is a question yet to
be answered. Hopefully Title IX will be modified to help women breakthrough discrimination in
mens college basketball. From my past experiences women will be good for a mans sport
because they are tough and just as qualified as other men who acquire coaching jobs. From the

research I gathered I came to think that men will never allow women to be a head coach unless
the government steps in.

Works Cited

Bishara, Motez. "She's the Boss: Is the Future of Coaching Female?" CNN. Cable News
Network, 20

Aug. 2015. Web. 02 Apr. 2016.

"Empowering Women in Sports - Introduction - Feminist Majority Foundation." Empowering

Women in Sports - Introduction - Feminist Majority Foundation. Copyright 2014
Feminist Majority Foundation, 1995. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.
Richman, Ryan. "Title IX: The Trojan Horse In The Struggle For Female Athletic Coaches To
Attain Equal Opportunities In Intercollegiate Sports." Virginia Sports & Entertainment
Law Journal 10.2 (2011): 376-413. Index to Legal Periodicals & Books Full Text (H.W.
Wilson). Web. 5 Apr. 2016.
Sports, Nicole Auerbach. "Glass Ceiling: Why Women Aren't Coaching Men's D-I Hoops." USA
Today. Gannett, 12 Nov. 2013. Web. 02 Apr. 2016.
Walker, Nefertiti A., and Melanie L. Sartore-Baldwin. "Hegemonic Masculinity And The
Institutionalized Bias Toward Women In Men's Collegiate Basketball: What Do
Men

Think?" Journal Of Sport Management 27.4 (2013): 303-315. SPORTDiscus

with Full

Text. Web. 5 Apr. 2016.

Walker, Nefertiti A., and Trevor Bopp. "The Underrepresentation Of Women In The MaleDominated Sport Workplace: Perspectives Of Female Coaches." Journal Of Workplace
Rights 15.1 (2010): 47-64. Business Source Complete. Web. 5 Apr. 2016.