Less Than Half of Head Coaches of Women’s Athletic Teams at Large Universities Are Women

The Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota and the Alliance of Women’s Coaches have issued a new report that grades universities in the largest athletic conferences on their hiring of women’s coaches for their women’s sports teams.

The report shows data for the 2012-13 academic year and the current academic year. The results show that in 2012-13, 40.2 percent of the head coaches of women’s teams at 76 universities in the large conferences were women. This year, the percentage dropped to 39.6 percent. Women were head coaches of 352 of the 888 women’s teams at these universities.

The University of Cincinnati was the only university in the survey to receive a grade of A from the authors of the report. At the University of Cincinnati, 80 percent of the head coaches of women’s teams are women. Eight other universities received a grade of B indicating that women were between 55 percent and 69 percent of all head coaches of women’s teams. These schools are the University of Texas, the University of Miami, Pennsylvania State University, the University of California at Los Angeles, Washington State University, Florida State University, the University of Illinois, and Louisiana State University.

Nine universities rated a grade of F. This indicates that women were less than 25 percent of the head coaches of women’s sports. These universities Include the University of Alabama, Vanderbilt University, Virgina Tech, Syracuse University, West Virginia University, the University of Arkansas, the University of Kentucky, and North Carolina State University. Oklahoma State ranked last with only 12.5 percent of women’s teams having a woman as head coach.

For the full rankings, click here.