Female sport coaches twice as likely as men to be bullied, study finds

January 21, 2026

Women who coach sports in the UK are experiencing bullying and harassment at far higher rates than men, according to a new study.

The survey of 2,000 coaches conducted by the charity Women in Sport and Leeds Beckett University found 30% of women surveyed said they had experienced bullying in coaching environments, compared with 15% of men.

Women also reported higher levels of harassment, with 21% saying they had experienced it compared with 12% of men, while they also faced more aggression or violence, affecting 22% of women compared with 19% of men surveyed.

The report said “sports coaching in the UK is a hostile environment for women”, many of who “choose to walk away” from “a system that offers less security, less support and greater risks”.

The study found the perpetrators of harassment of women coaches are mostly fellow coaches, while aggression and intimidation most often came from parents.

It adds that bullying becomes more severe the higher women progress, as 26% of women reported bullying at grassroots level, followed by 38% in talent pathways and 46% in high‑performance settings, where women are heavily outnumbered. bbc