Women in sports coaching:Investigating qualification and professional pathways in German elite sport

Project funding: Federal Institute for Sports Science

Gender equality is a key goal of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This goal also applies to organized sport in Germany.

While progress has been made at member, athlete and policy level, there is no equal opportunity in the coaching profession in particular: women are drastically underrepresented in training and coaching positions in elite sport (on average <15%).

Current studies show that the causes of the gender gap in the coaching profession are a complex mixture of individual, interpersonal, socio-cultural and structural factors. As a result, German competitive sport is lacking innovation potential while female athletes are missing out on same-sex leaders.

The overarching objective of the project is to develop practical solution strategies based on sound knowledge of the current situation and the specific causes of the underrepresentation of female A/B-licensed coaches in competitive sport in Germany.

In detail the project will…

1.

Statistically evaluate the gender-specific training and employment relationships of coaches in competitive sport using existing data sets from selected Olympic, non-Olympic and Paralympic competitive sport organizations.

2.

Examine barriers and success factors in education and career entry, using a mix of methods (online questionnaire, biographical mapping interviews, focus group discussions with coaches and expert interviews).

3.

Identify promising support measures for women in the coaching profession using document analysis, expert interviews as well as think tanks.

The practical preparation of the project results is carried out in a project-related and target group-specific manner by means of a digital toolkit with funding strategies, project presentations, a symposium on female coaches as well as a final report.

Contact

Prof. Dr. Astrid Schubring (Project management)

Section Sociology of Sport

Institute of Sociology and Gender Studies

German Sport University Cologne

a.schubring@dshs-koeln.de