Coaching and officiating

Like other aspects of sport, coaching and officiating have traditionally been male-dominated activities. ^{42, 43, 44, 147}

Where they have been involved, women coaches and officials have more traditionally worked with female and/or younger athletes, often with the perception that they are more 'nurturing' and potentially not 'tough enough' for elite sport, and in more traditionally feminine or female sports (e.g., gymnastics, figure skating, netball, swimming). ^{16, 45, 46, 47, 145, 147}

Research from Victoria in 2024 found that children were more likely to have exposure to men as coaches and officials. Parental and social attitudes had a significant impact on whether or not children associated women as coaches or officials. Older children, and especially those who had experience with female coaches and officials were more likely to believe that women could be great coaches and officials. The findings highlighted the importance of making sure that children in all sports are exposed to women coaches and officials, and ensuring that women are encouraged, supported, recognised, and promoted in these roles. ¹⁴⁷

Because women typically have greater domestic responsibilities (i.e., looking after families and children), their ability to commit to coaching and officiating positions, which may include travel, weekend, and evening work, can be more constrained and is more often questioned compared to male equivalents. ^{48, 49}

Even when women do succeed in gaining high performance sport coaching and officiating roles, their experiences can often be difficult, and allegations of sexism, harassment, bullying, and a lack of support from internal and external stakeholders are common. ^{42, 43, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 142, 146}

Coaching

AusPlay survey data shows that in 2024, around 36% of Australians aged 15 years and over who reported participating as a coach (including instructors, trainers, and teachers) were women. ¹ However, these women are not transitioning to a similar proportion of pathway and elite coaching positions.

Current and consistently reported data can be difficult to find, but available reports show that women are underrepresented in Australian and international high-performance coaching and coaching pathways. ^{50, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 140, 142, 146}

• In 2023, less than 10% of head coaches across the top 36 Australian government funded high performance sports were women. ¹⁴⁶
• In 2022, there were 28 women in various coaching roles (no head coaches) in the Australian Football League (AFL) men’s competition, and 30% of coaches in the AFL women's competition were women. ⁶¹
• In 2022, none of the Member organisations of the Champions of Change - Sport group, across 16 national, state and professional sport environments, had achieved gender balance among coaching staff at the elite level. This was down from 31.3% who had in 2021. ¹⁴⁰
• At the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games, 48% of athletes from all countries were women (compared to 45% at Rio 2016) but only 13% of international coaches were women (compared to 11% at Rio 2016). ⁶
• 18% of Australian accredited coaches at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and 23% at the Paralympic Games were women. ³
• A 2018-19 report compiled data on 578 head coaches from women's national teams and domestic leagues in football, basketball, netball, volleyball, and softball from a variety of countries. While not exhaustive, they found that overall, 40% of head coaches were women (35% if you remove netball coaches, which was a significant outlier). The percentage of female head coaches by sport was volleyball (25%), football (26%), basketball (42%), softball (54%) and netball (88%). ⁶²
• A 2022 Victorian survey for the Victorian Government's Change our Game initiative, found that respondents were more than 16x more likely to believe men had more opportunities to coach elite teams than women. In community sport, respondents were 4x more likely to believe men had more opportunities to coach junior or community clubs than women. ¹⁴⁴

Officiating

AusPlay survey data shows that 36% of Australians (aged 15 years and older) who participated as a sports official (including referee/umpire, line judge, scorer, timekeeper, starter) in 2024 were women. ¹

Despite this relatively broad base there appear to be even fewer women officials than coaches at elite levels.

• In Australia, there are very limited sources indicating how many women are currently officiating, particularly in professional leagues. The Australian Football League (AFL), National Rugby League (NRL), and A-League (Football) have all had some female referees officiating top level matches, but not many. ^{63, 64, 65}
• In 2022, only 18.8% of the Member organisations of the Champions of Change - Sport group, across 16 national, state and professional sport environments, had achieved gender balance among officials at the elite level. This was up from 12.5% who had in 2021. ¹⁴⁰
• In the American men’s National Basketball Association (NBA) there have been only seven full-time female referees in over 70 years (the first was in 1997). ⁶⁶ While total refereeing figures for the women's professional league are more difficult to find, in the 2021 women's NBA playoffs 47% (7 out of 15) of the referees selected were women, ⁶⁷ up from 37.5% (6 out of 16) in 2018. ⁶⁸
• At the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games, 32% of international technical officials were women (compared to 29% at Rio 2016). ⁶
• Individual sports are also starting to commit to gender equity in officiating, for example World Triathlon have selected equal numbers of male and female officials for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games events. ⁶⁹

Future development

As in many other sporting areas, there are a variety of factors—individual, social, cultural—impacting women's participation in coaching and officiating, but there is clearly room for women to participate more fully at all levels. ^{44, 48, 49, 70, 71, 72}

Some actions to help increase participation and retention include:

• Understanding the pathways for recruiting and retaining women. Listen to their needs on strategies that will recruit and retain them. ^{73, 74, 146}
• Promoting coaching, officiating and sports administration opportunities to women, both as viable professional careers and as opportunities to be involved in grassroots organisations. ^{73, 146}
• Talking to women in your club/organisation and reach out to women coaches who may have previously left, to discuss new opportunities and encourage them to apply and/or develop and document the skills required to be the best applicant. ^{49, 73}
• Offering flexible and accessible learning opportunities, including recording workshops for individuals to watch in their own time, and consider women-only courses which can help women to overcome initial self-confidence issues. ^{49, 75, 146}
• Promoting a culture of work-life balance, including creating family-friendly environments that support parents during practice and competition, at home and when travelling. ^{48, 73, 76, 146}
• Developing networking, communication, role models, and mentoring opportunities to connect aspiring career women with successful women (and men) in the field. ^{13, 18, 49, 146}
• Organisations should review their hiring practices, procedures, and commitment to gender equality, particularly where unconscious bias may be impacting. ^{18, 45, 146}
• Increasing opportunities for both male and female players to work with women coaches/officials, so it becomes 'normal'. ⁷³

Resources and reading