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Lost leaders: Women's sport is growing but where are the female coaches?
By Roy Ward
As Australia's female athletes thrive, the nation's female coaches are being left behind.
In every measurement, Australia is not giving enough female coaches elite-level opportunities with female coaches making up just 9 per cent of Australia's coaches at the Rio Olympics four years ago, and that number is likely to be repeated in Tokyo despite this year's Games set to be the most gender-balanced in history in terms of athletes. That coaching figure is down from 12 per cent from the 2012 London Olympics.
Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander.Credit: Getty Images
In Australia's domestic football codes not even an explosion of women's competitions has boosted the number of female coaches, and Olympic swimming gold medallist Petria Thomas and outgoing Australian Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander want more sports organisations and boards to promote more women to elite roles, as well as key development and entry-level coaching positions.
Thomas has always believed the best person should get the job, but she is concerned that not enough female coaches are able to progress through coaching pathways and organisations often don't understand the reasons why.
"Most sports are male dominated apart from traditional women's sports like netball and even there you see male coaches," Thomas said.
"There is a number of factors and the life circumstances of the female is a big one, then breaking through in a male-dominated industry is really challenging.
"Even when you have women who break through to those elite ranks, it can be quite an intimidating industry when you are in the minority.
"It's really disappointing because women have a lot of skills and a lot to offer. It's important to have variety in everything and I'd like to see more women coaches across the spectrum of sport."
Thomas is presently the high performance general manager at Gymnastics Australia and she is part of the second intake for the Australian Institute of Sport's Talent Program which helps female coaches and executives develop their skills and push for higher positions.
Studies are also being undertaken to combat bias on selection panels and to break through barriers and old thinking - such as, "Who will mind your children or what if you get pregnant?" - which unfairly prevent some female coaches from rising along the same pathways as their male counterparts.
"It's about giving more women the opportunity and confidence to take that step up and make them the best person for the job," Thomas said.
Olympic gold medallist Petria Thomas says there are barriers that must come down to help women along elite pathways.Credit: Fairfax Media
"If we could break through those barriers more than I'm sure we would see more great women coaches. But it is a struggle and there are no quick answers."
Alexander has spent a lifetime as a teacher and coach, leading the Australian Diamonds for nine years, highlighted by a Netball World Cup win and a Commonwealth Games gold medal.
Alexander, whose contract as Diamonds coach was not renewed recently, is a prominent voice on netball and coaching and she has spent time learning from visits to the Wallabies, English rugby side, and various AFL and NRL clubs.
Alexander is open to working in men's professional sport as she knows the best female coaches can handle the toughest of coaching jobs.
It's really disappointing because women have a lot of skills and a lot to offer ... I'd like to see more women coaches across the spectrum of sport.
Petria Thomas
"It's a reflection of the country," Alexander said.
"Can women lead the country? Can they run the biggest corporations in Australia? Until they see women leading in those roles - Ita Buttrose, chairwoman at the ABC, is one of them - all those things will add up to it being visible, accepted and normalised."
At club level there's been an explosion of participation in women's leagues but this has not propelled female coaches into senior positions.
In the AFLW, only one of the 14 senior coaches - Peta Searle at St Kilda - is female. In cricket's WBBL, the figure is two of eight, including Perth Scorchers coach Lisa Keightley, who is also coaching England at the Women's Twenty20 World Cup. In basketball's WNBL, it's three of eight.
In soccer, two of the nine W-League coaches are women but Canberra United's Heather Garriock won't be reappointed next season and Ash Wilson at the Newcastle Jets is in an interim role. On the national stage, the Australian women's cricket team (Matthew Mott), the Matildas (Ante Milicic), the Jillaroos (Brad Donald) and the Wallaroos (Dwayne Nestor) are all coached by men.
There are countless male coaches who make great contributions to women's sport. That is not the issue. Instead, the issue is whether their female colleagues are allowed the same opportunities to claim elite coaching and sports positions.
The professional men's sporting codes barely have a woman on their coaching staffs and in the major women's elite competitions only Super Netball has a majority of female coaches, with seven of the eight teams led by women.
In sports that do not have lucrative leagues or world tours, the numbers also dwindle with a reliance on self-funding to keep coaching.
Among the Olympic sports, swimming has boasted arguably the best equality in success shared by their elite male and female swimmers but that hasn't translated to the coaching ranks where this year's Olympic head coaches will likely all be male, just as they were in Rio in 2016.
Swimming Australia chief executive Leigh Russell admits her organisation faces a challenge to keep female coaches and promote them through the ranks.
"Every sport is grappling with similar challenges around gender equality and coaching," Russell said.
"But we need to do more is the short way of saying it. We need to make sure we clear the pathways, remove the barriers and do things like recognise the achievements of coaches in the system at the moment."
Alexander has never had a problem dealing with male athletes and believes a good coach wins over their players.
Opals coach Sandy Brondello (centre) has juggled family life and elite sport.Credit: Getty Images
"As soon as they hear you are a high-performance coach, what you have achieved in your sport and see how you behave - they know that you know your stuff," Alexander said.
"Once you get over the fact I look different to the male coaches then we just move on."
Alexander will coach the Diamonds for the last time on March 1 and it's likely the next coach will be a woman while basketball's national women's team, the Opals, is coached by Sandy Brondello who also coaches the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA in the US.
"It's not like women haven't been leading men for a long time, particularly in schools," Alexander said.
"Teaching is my profession and when people say to me, 'Could you handle an AFL team?' - I say well I could always handle the year 10 boys advanced PE class. I enjoyed taking the boys as I could apply my high-performance coaching skills to them."
The AIS has been studying this problem and built up comprehensive data on how sports are hiring coaches and what traits the most successful coaches share.
Darlene Harrison, the AIS' director of performance, people and teams, has led the way in this research, having also recently launched the AIS Talent Program.
Harrison had 156 applicants for 34 places, showing there is a distinct need for more upskilling programs.
Harrison said organisations could take tests to remove unintentional biases from panels, set up profiles for their ideal coach and know the personality, cognitive and behavioural traits that predispose coaches to success among other practices.
Along with removing bias, sports also need to look at whether they're attracting enough women coaches to their development and entry-level coaching roles, which then give coaches the experience needed to qualify for top jobs.
Bias, wilful or unintentional, is an issue that not only stops many female candidates from being considered for roles, but also male coaches who may not starred as a player in their chosen sport.
Women with children also too often face queries about how they can put in the time to be a senior coach and be a mother.
"Solve the family issue, which I think the workplace is starting to do now too," Alexander said.
"When I walk around Melbourne [on weekdays] I see so many more dads pushing little kids around and that shows me society is changing.
"We have to do that in a much better way for families in high performance sport, I've always argued women shouldn't be sacrificing so much of their family time for their sport.
"Who looks after the kids of the male swim coaches? It has to be looked at the same."
Brondello recently led the Opals to Olympic qualification in France, and then flew back to Phoenix for the start of the WNBA free agency period.
Saints coach Peta Searle (left) is the only female coach in the AFLW.Credit: Getty Images
She also has two children under 15, with husband Olaf Lange who has also coached in the highest levels of women's basketball.
"In the [former WNBL club] Logan Thunder days my daughter Jada was three months old and daycare would only take her after six months," Brondello said.
"Sometimes in training camp we would have individual sessions and we would just put her in the crib beside the court. So just enabling that [made a difference].
"If you really have that passion you will find a way but you have to be in the right situation too."
In recent years cricket, Australian rules, rugby league and rugby union have started pushing into women's sport creating pathways for athletes but largely recruiting male coaches. Some administrators argue they don't have enough women with elite coaching experience, but many experienced female coaches have been shut out of elite opportunities.
Cricket Tasmania signed coach Salliann Briggs to lead their WBBL and women's state cricket program and she is also part of Harrison's AIS program.
Briggs was impressed when Tasmania was open to her applying from England and she has seen big changes during the growth of women's cricket but knows more needs to be done to open pathways for aspiring coaches.
She isn't sure if she wants to coach in men's cricket at some point but like so many female coaches, she doesn't fear the task.
"I wouldn't say I'm intimidated by the prospect of that, it's a very exciting challenge," Briggs said.
"I'm just not sure the cricket world will want to welcome that yet. We've seen a vast amount of change in the past five-10 years but I still don't know.
"Between the fans and maybe some male players might take a while to get used to that idea but I'm certainly inspired by Julia Price who assisted Darren Lehmann at Brisbane Heat this season.
"That's a push in the right direction."