One Sport Voice

I got to talk with Erika Nardini, CEO of Barstool Sports on her podcast Token CEO.

Listen to our conversation & why we are both pissed off. (~17mns in)

Listen to three seasons of Tucker Center Talks, a bi-monthly podcast I host, produced by WISP Sports. This podcast is a place where I talk to, amplify, and support my female colleagues—amazing women who study sport and gender. We let the data tell the story, and talk about our research and ways we are changing the world, through the context of sport.

The Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota released its annual Women in College Coaching Report Card (WCCRC) in collaboration with WeCOACH. The report documents the percentage of women in all coaching positions for women’s teams at NCAA Division-I institutions.

Key Findings:

• The percentage of D-I women Head Coaches went up and is now at 42.3% (up from 42.1% in 2018-19)—the data is trending in the right direction! but is remarkably stagnant.
• LEADERS for Percentage of Women Head Coaches of Women Teams
  • Institutional leader: Tennessee State (85.7%)
  • Conference leader: Ivy League (52.4%)
  • Sport leader: Wrestling (100%), NCAA emerging sport
• The majority (52.7%) of the 442 head coach hires were men. 
• As the coaching position became more visible, lucrative and powerful, fewer women occupied the position. (i.e., from Graduate Assistant to Head Coach to Director of Sport)
• Starting at the Assistant Coach position, men are statistically and significantly older than women and are more likely to have children. 
• Based on the data, we identified that the Assistant Coach is a critical zone of attrition in the career pipeline for women, possibly due in part to parental status. This report identifies leaks in the pipeline and opportunities for policy, support and programming.
• Very few coaches at any position (42 of 10,697) are openly gay within their online biographies, indicating that homophobia is prevalent within college athletics.
• The culture of college sport privileges heterosexual men with children. Coaching, like many occupations, is gendered. Much work remains to ensure all women, regardless of identity, feel safe, valued and supported.

To read the full WCCRC and to see which institutions, sports and conferences receive passing and failing grades, and read more about factors that contribute to the leaky pipeline visit TuckerCenter.org

In this episode, I talk to Matea Wasend, my former School of Kinesiology MS student in sport sociology, Tucker Center research assistant, two-time recipient of the Tucker Center‘s Pam Borton Fellowship, and inaugural recipient of the Erin Reifsteck Student Paper of the Year award from the Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal (WSPAJ). Matea received the WSPAJ award for her publication, “Are women coached by women more likely to become sport coaches? Head coach gender and female collegiate athletes’ entry into the coaching profession,” which in WSPAJ vol 27, issue 2. To honor Matea’s work, her winning article has been given open access for the coming year. The podcast highlights how Matea came up with the idea, what she did, and what she found.

Listen to this episode of Tucker Center Talks here.

In October 2019, I gave a keynote, “Girls and Women in Sport: Research to Practice” at the Sport Canada Research Initiative (SCRI) Conference which brought together sport researchers and practitioners from across Canada.

I outline three lines of research we do in the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, why and how I decide to do which research projects, and the importance of public scholarship.

October 2019, watch my 20mn TEDx Style talk I was invited to give for the Good Leadership Breakfast, where I talk about how my passion for fairness and equity pertaining to girls and women in sport started, and how it landed me in my current role as Director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport.

POD: In October 2019, I visited Aotearoa New Zealand and was the keynote speaker at the Sport New Zealand Women + Girls Summit, delivered by WISPA and the Shift Foundation, while I there I did a podcast for LockerRoom and Radio New Zealand Fair Play. Have a listen! https://lnkd.in/f7k9XZT

POD: Listen to Tucker Center Talks, a monthly podcast I host, produced by WISP Sports. I’ll feature invited guests, timely critiques, the latest research, and dialogue around girls and women in sport.

 

In the last year I’ve been thinking about women can create and be part of changing the occupational landscape in coaching. Change can happen from the ground up, from women. Change can also happen from the top down, when those in power champion social change. For the 2018 Women Coaches Symposium I put together a keynote around many of the false narratives I hear about women coaches, and provided some data that can help all women and gender allies challenge those false narratives. To see the full video, click here.

“Changing our Narrative Together”