No Girls Allowed: As Number of Female Athletes Increases, Number of Women Coaches Does Not
By Stefan Bondy, The New Jersey Herald

It is one of the few remaining bastions of male dominance, a world that lives by and preaches physical Darwinism. Although the athletic fields of America have been leveled by Title IX and other equity pressures over the past 30 years, their sidelines are a different story. At all levels of sports, no matter the gender of the athletes, female coaches are rare. Of the 7,499 teams listed under member high schools in the most recent edition of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association directory, approximately 21 percent were coached by females. They were outnumbered 170-55 in the Sussex County Interscholastic League. In colleges nationwide, they represent 17.7 percent.

The reasons vary. Some insist it's about preference, while others say it's an unbending sociological and discriminatory wall. Regardless, the discrepancy is surprising. Thirty-four years after Title IX's inception, females comprise nearly half of all non-professional athletes, yet are more likely to be supervised by a male…But the president of the Women's Sports Foundation, Donna Lopiano, views that old-school logic as offensive and "part of a culture that devalues women and their skills." She said the disproportionate numbers are no accident, and that athletic directors have systematically marginalized female coaches by diminishing their importance. "When schools go out and recruit coaches, they will do almost anything to get a male for sports like football and basketball," Lopiano said. "They will give him an administrative job, the vice principal position and make it very lucrative. When coaches for women's teams are sought, the athletic director says, ‘I need a math teacher.'"

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