Women As Coaches

There are very few women coaches in my community's youth sports leagues: only 13% in AYSO and 6% in Little League Baseball and Softball. While I found very little overt sexism or hostility toward women coaches, their stories told of informal (but very powerful) processes that discouraged them: being informally pushed away from coaching at the entry level; feeling a constant sense of scrutiny from other adults ("is she really qualified to coach my kid?"); being made to feel like an outsider in the midst of an "old boys' network"; having to contend with men's sometimes "intimidating" loud voices on the playing fields.