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I know what you’re thinking, what an odd title for a women’s sports blog!  What does it mean to have two male coaches in the women’s final? was featured this afternoon on the NCAA Double-A Zone blog.  The article opens restating the statistics released earlier this year by the NCAA in the Perceived Barriers Study, that we covered in Gender Barriers in Athletics.

Until reading this article I had not realized that this is just the second time in history that two male head coaches meet on the stage of the women’s final.  (the first time coming in 1988.)    

Now, I’m hoping that Marta Lawrence wrote this article just to get a rise out of people like me.  And if so, congratulations!  The questions asked really got me thinking, and caused me to react!  I want to make sure I am not misunderstood, I have had multiple good male coaches, and I know MANY good male coaches of female athletes.  I have nothing against men who coach women.  How many people are going to assume that Louisville and UConn met tonight in the National Champioinship game because they have male coaches?  How many people are going to belive that the Geno Auriemma and Jeff Walz  are more qualifed, more successful, more talented, than Pat Summit, C. Vivian Stringer, Tara VanDerveer, Sherri Coale, simply because they are men. 

So, does the game tonight work to reiterate the subconscious notion that men are better suited to coaching than women?

In one word: No.  

Do women still need to climb the gender equity hill or is tonight’s game an indication that we’ve moved to a post-gender time in women’s athletics?

1) It doesn’t bother me that the coach of the UConn Huskies and the Louisville Cardinals are men.  It doesn’t bother me that the top two women’s basketball teams in the country are coached by men.  We know the facts.  Only 42% of women’s college teams are coached by women.  In 1972, the birth of Title IX, 90% of women’s college teams were coached by women.  It upsets me that people will look at tonight and say “men are better suited to coaching than women.” 
2) Women definitely still need to climb the gender equity hill.  The worst thing that we can do as women, as leaders, and as mentors to young children, is to think that “we’ve moved to a post-gender time in women’s athletics.”  If we believe that, if we allow that thought to creep into our minds, we will lose everything our founding mothers fought for when Title IX was enacted. 

“There’s always going to be another mountain
I’m always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes I’m gonna to have to lose,
Ain’t about how fast I get there,
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb”

(I SWEAR I chose this quote before that little tribute to the women’s tournament…even if it’s sad to admit!)

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