Women in coaching

The purpose of this article is to review the challenges that women coaches must overcome and to discuss coach education strategies for facilitating the development of women coaches. Changes in representation of women in positions of leadership in sport have created a social context in which the experience of female coaches is referenced from a predominantly male perspective. As such, recurring issues elicited by attendees at the USOC/NCAA sponsored Women in Coaching Conferences are discussed. Coach education strategies are addressed in three main areas: (a) the continuation of women and sport programs, (b) restructuring the work enviromnent to recognize and value relational work skills, and (c) relational mentoring models to navigate career and life transitions and advocate for change.