Last week, our group gathered to discuss the reasons for the declining numbers of female coaches and administrators in Division I, II, and III college athletics. One of the statistics we were given was that in 1972, 90% of women's teams were coached by females whereas in 2012, only 42.9% were coached by females. One of the reasons I came up with for this decline is that 1972 was when Title IX was created. As a result of Title IX, more and more females teams were added to colleges' athletics. To me, this meant female collegiate athletics became much more competitive. As a result of this therefore, schools realized that they needed the best coaches in order to win and that's when they began hiring more and more male coaches for their female teams. Males at that point knew more about basketball because males in general, had been playing the game for longer. Male coaches also had to be seen as implementing more aggressive styles with their female teams giving their teams a competitive edge.
We were also given the statistic that in college athletics, 20.3% of athletic directors are females with Division I having the fewest; 36. In order to avoid such low numbers of both coaches in college athletics and administrators, our group thought that an adopted version of the NFL's Rooney Rule could be the solution. In order to encourage the hiring of female coaches and administrators, all college teams should be required to interview at least one female for every position. This way, qualified females don't get automatically turned down.
-Chris Cournan
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