Money, family and sexism - why the number of women coaches is dropping Image source, Getty Images Image caption, The number of women in coaching in the UK has fallen in recent years, particularly at grassroots level By Emma Smith BBC Sport journalist The head of Britain's professional sports coach association Emily Handyside says female coaches "must work twice as hard as a man to be respected and credible", despite recent on-pitch successes and increased media exposure for women's sport in the UK. A study from UK Coaching shows there has been a 6% decline in the overall number of female coaches in recent years. The decline is particularly steep at grassroots level, with a 10% dip in the number of female volunteer coaches - significantly affecting pathways in amateur sport."When people imagine a coach, they imagine a man first, people expect a man," Handyside, former Wales netball coach and lead at UK Coaching, told BBC Sport."These assumptions make people feel like they don't belong there.
Women must work twice as hard to be respected, to be credible."Additional research highlighted systemic barriers experienced by women coaches, including bullying, harassment and unequal opportunities. And the impact is passed down to young players, according to new FA data released this week. Half of all girls who play organised football say they would tell a female coach something they could not tell a parent or guardian, while for a male coach, the figure is just one in eight - but only 7% of the people coaching grassroots football in England are women.
The study from Bloomsbury Football Foundation in association with the FA found 13% of teenage girls play organised football at least once a week, against 46% of boys. Of the girls who play, 49% are mostly or always coached by someone of their own gender, against 85% of boys. This tallies with what has been experienced by female coaches for years - while opportunities are increasing at the top level, for most there has been little change.'Cost barriers are greater for women'Image source, Getty Images Image caption, UK Coaching lead Emily Handyside (left) says government intervention is required to help women into coaching An example of success at elite level is the Women's Super League.
In January 2023, only four of 12 WSL coaches were women. Now, eight out of 14 managers in the English top tier are women,, external including the managers of all three newly promoted sides - Amy Merricks at Birmingham, Crystal Palace's Jo Potter and Karen Hills of Charlton Athletic. A new Fifa quota stating women's teams must have a female head coach or assistant has also helped redress the balance in top-level football.
However, at grassroots level it is a different story, with barriers including cost and childcare, even for former Lionesses."That number is a shock," said ex-England international Fara Williams, speaking on the BBC's Women's Football Fallout about the drop in coaching numbers."The cost to do B and A licences, and the salaries or opportunities you will get from that investment, it does not quite marry up. They are quite costly, those badges. "I tried it [the coaching pathway], it was not feasible to take up that opportunity. Some can take that risk, but our generation of players, we were not paid enough to go mortgage free, bills must be paid.
I needed to do something that would pay the bills, and football coaching was not that."When I was playing, I was adamant I was going to be a coach, I coached all the development teams at Everton, Liverpool and Reading, but it is so different. When you are playing you don't have the opportunities to coach at a higher level, then when you come out the game you don't have the money."The Uefa Pro Licence, external - the qualification needed to coach at the highest level of English football - costs £14,000, and there are only 24 places per intake. For a C licence, the lowest certification level, the cost is £650., external This can be subsidised, but only if ...
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