Christine is a college basketball player. She and the rest of her team have just been introduced to their new coach for the year, and it’s the first ever female coach their team has ever had. This new coach used to play professional basketball, and she was very educated in the game. Christine knew in the moment that she first got to know her new coach that she wanted to go into the professional basketball career (Jackson-Gibson, “What Title IX missed: How the gender-equity law has led to fewer women coaches”). 

Title IX has been overlooking the problems that female coaches face every day in the work force. Title IX protects female athletes but it does not do much for the women in coaching careers. We are seeing a decrease in the number of female coaches since the start of Title IX, which should be the opposite. These women are given unequal opportunity compared to the men who have the same exact qualifications as them. My research question I will be discussing is “ Why has Title IX only been helping female athletes, while managing  to overlook the problems female coaches encounter every day?”. This topic is very important to me because being a female hoping to pursue a career in the sports field, this law plays a huge part in my future. Title IX has been doing the opposite of what it was originally made for due to the unequal opportunity based on gender, the dropping numbers of female coaches, and homophobic tendencies revolving around female coaching. Title IX should not solely focus on female athletes, it should also work to protect females who hope to pursue jobs such as coaching. 

Title IX is a very significant amendment that was passed in 1972 that helped to eliminate sexual discrimination in educational programs that were federally funded. This amendment being passed was a huge milestone for female athletes, but also for the women who works around these sports. Women in professions such as coaching, broadcasting, and athletic training were given a leg up toward an equal playing field, but are any changes actually being accomplished? These jobs being mostly male dominated even to this day is the biggest obstacle that these women face. Title IX does wonders for these up and coming athletes, but the women who are the backbone behind the whole thing get pushed to the back burner. Now more than ever it is apparent that Title IX has had more of a negative impact on these women. The numbers of women in coaching careers have dropped more than 50 percent in the past decades since Title IX was amended. Numbers pulled from Zachary Evan’s article on “The Need for Women in Sports Goes Beyond Title IX” state that women only represent “28 of 713 sports agents certified by the NFL Players Association, 6 of 400 certified by the MLB Players Association, and 6 of 375 certified by the NBA Players Association” (Clapp, “The Need For Women in Sports Goes Beyond Title IX”). These numbers show that women make up less than 5 percent of these associations, which are clearly male dominated. So, is Title IX helping a broader spectrum of females associated with these sports, or is it just helping the athletes? (https://www.knowyourix.org/college-resources/title-ix/)

The first major issue for women is the unequal opportunity due to gender in this branch of work. There is a much higher ratio of men than women on the hiring committees, resulting in gender bias. Dana Husinger Benbow’s article in USA Today states that “’Men are still doing most of the hiring… and often end up selecting from the networks from which they are familiar, which are majority male’” (Benbow, “Why has number of women coaches fallen since Title IX?”). This unequal opportunity is seen by both men and women around the world. Highly educated and experienced women are being looked over. Even though men are chosen to coach women’s sports, women are never selected to work a man’s sport because it is believed that women can’t coach men. The video posted by Associated Press talks about how the Arizona Cardinals newest coach Jen Welter is the first female coach to ever be hired by the NFL. This is a huge milestone for women in this profession because this is helping show that women can coach a man’s sport. Jen Welter was not only a coach for the Cardinals, she was also the first woman to hold a non-kicking position on a professional men’s league. She held a position with the running backs and she was on special teams (Associated Press, “The Arizona Cardinals say new coach Jen Welter is believed to be the first woman to hold a coaching position of any kind in the NFL”). Jen is an example of a woman who has not only become an icon for women hoping to pursue these types of jobs, but she has also helped to chip away at this stereotype that women can’t do what men can. She has become the first woman to work as a coach in a predominately male work environment, and has proved that women can do it. These points have a huge effect on the industry because there will forever be sexual discrimination and inequality if people continue to ignore the fact that they are indeed there. There has been little to no changes in the ways things have been ran in this field of work. Women who have worked hard for their degrees deserve an equal chance, plain and simple. Unequal opportunities being thrown in the opposite direction of women will only stall the progress made by Title IX over the past 45 years further. 

Men have swept into these female sports such as volleyball and basketball, and have taken over this job market. R.V. Acosta and I.J. Carpenter discuss underlying issues that have led men over the years into these female sports. Issues discussed include those of pay and time, and the fact that after Title IX, female coaches didn’t need to be hired. According to Acosta and Carpenter, after Title IX was created,  “ about 85% of the athletic administrators were men who had control over both men's and women's programs whereas previous to Title IX, more than 90% of athletic administrators over women's programs were women”( Acosta and Carpenter, “As the Years Go By: Women's Coaching Opportunities”). This increase in men being in charge of women’s sports shows signs of gender bias. When in charge, any given person will go with what they are more comfortable with. Since Title IX made these female sports recognized by people as more than just a club, men will flock to the job, as will women. The only major difference is that since it is a real sport now, it becomes the male driven athletic administrations duty to give the most comfortable choice the job, in this case, men.  The number of women in these sports positions continue to drop and it is not good news for the up and coming women who hope to one day become coaches. A case mentioned in Dana Benbow’s article was that of a very well-known female hockey coach in Minnesota. Shannon Miller was fired due to financial issues the team faced, even after she offered to take a pay cut. Said coach had won multiple NCAA championships and helped get 20 plus athletes into the Olympics. Miller helped this team have multiple winning seasons, and Benbow speculates that she more than likely wouldn’t have been fired if she were a male (Benbow, “Why has number of women coaches fallen since Title IX?”). Firing someone who is nationally known for their coaching skills is a huge slap in the face to women across the country. It further proves the point that women are treated unfair in this field of work. Female athletes need some form of female role modeling in their life, especially as an athlete because those coaches have been in those girls shoes. The women who have dedicated a lifetime to understanding a game and the struggles that come with it are being kicked out of their positions by people who have never had to step into their shoes. This unequal opportunity in the hiring field is one of the underlying effects of the dropping number of female coaches. If these women who are more well-known keep getting pushed out of their positions, there will be no more female motivation to pursue these jobs, therefore women in coaching will disintegrate completely. This is the opposite of what needs to occur; women should be gaining these jobs in college and professional level sports. 

Homophobic assumptions of women in coaching is an issue that is very prevalent in these coaching jobs today. In Benbow’s article, she mentions how “’Lesbians are saddled with negative stereotypes such as sexually seductive and predatory, masculine, aggressive and harmful toward children… In general, it is perceived that lesbians are bad for the image of women's sport’” (Benbow, “Why has number of women coaches fallen since Title IX?”). Many people are upset over the fact that sexual orientation is a limiting factor in sport position interviews. Someone’s sexual orientation should not label them, but rather their character should. A woman who is gay and in this field should be an even bigger positive image for women’s sport because not only are they overcoming the obstacles of being female, they are also beating that of being gay. According to Luke Cyphers and Kate Fagan’s article in ESPN, many females who coach at collegiate and higher level schools tend to hide who they truly are. The number of women who have to keep themselves closeted from everyone around them is a lot higher than those who are out. There was only one female coach who was out to everyone around her back when this piece was originally written. Sherri Murrell gets coaches every day talking about how they wish they could do what she’s doing. The big issue with this is negative recruiting. Negative recruiting is when a coach from different college sways the thoughts of a young high school athlete from another college by indirectly stating false facts, in this case, sexuality. This happens to steer younger athletes away from these schools. A coaches sexuality has no correlation with their ability to coach, so when people assume it does these coaches are out of a job (L. Cyphers and K. Fagan, “Homophobia's role in women's college recruiting”). Lesbian coaches aren’t even losing their jobs because they are lesbian, they are losing them because they are failing to recruit up and coming athletes due to rumors spread about their personal life. Homophobic actions taken on female coaches is further increasing the amount of women being fired and overlooked in this work force. 

This drop is something that never should have occurred because female athletes need a successful woman to look up to; their coach is someone they see as a mentor. The dropping number is a scary thing because if it continues to drop at this rate, there will no longer be female coaches. It’s a sad truth that in society today people are supposed to be working towards equality, but a law made 40 years ago can’t be abided by. This needs to change as soon as possible, or inequality will forever be present in society. There needs to be an equal number of men and women on these hiring committees that will give women just as much of a chance as the men; looking past the gender of the person and looking at their qualifications. In Jackson-Gibson’s article, the Women’s Sports Foundation surveyed “2,500 collegiate coaches, both men and women, across different sports, conferences and divisions, and discovered that 80 percent of female coaches believe that it’s easier for men to get top-level jobs” (Jackson-Gibson, “What Title IX missed: How the gender-equity law has led to fewer women coaches”). This poll shows that even men agree that men can get jobs easier than women. There are many stereotypes revolving around women in these types of jobs. People tend to think coaching is a more masculine job, therefore men are seen doing it more than women now. 

Women are becoming less and less appreciated when it comes to their coaching abilities. Some of these women have been in these younger ladies shoes, and know every emotion and every thought running through their head on and off the court. Why take this connection away from a group of girls because it is the societal norm to go with the male? The drop of women over the past 40 years is detrimental to the futures of these athletes. Women need to coach female sports because they can be a strong role model for them to look up to. Dedication of the coach rubs off on a team, and having someone who can relate to them on a more personal level as well as physical level is just what they need. Men are coming in and being hired by other men, but the opinions of women aren’t present due to the lack of a feminine perspective on these hiring committees. Multiple statistics and studies show the unequal opportunities given to these coaches solely based on their gender. A man and a woman could walk into an interview with the same exact qualifications and education, and gender bias will always win in this situation. The man will be hired. The passing of Title IX should not be lowering the number of female coaches in dominantly female sports, it should be increasing it. Less young women are going to want to pursue a job in coaching because they are witnessing discrimination based on the sex and sexuality firsthand. 
