Why Aren’t There More Women Running Coaches?

May 15, 2024

The number of women track and field and cross country coaches in collegiate and pro spaces is still stunningly low, especially in comparison to other sports.

A 2023 report put out by the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at The University of Minnesota in collaboration with WeCOACH found that just 18.6 percent of head coaches of college-level women’s track and field and 19.3 percent of head coaches in college-level women’s cross country were women. Additionally, only 9.3 percent of head track & field coaches were women of color, the report noted.

This is a major issue, because “same-identity athletic role models increase the accrual of positive psychosocial, health, and developmental assets for girls and women,” the Tucker Center report notes. Popsugar