Study Finds Major Gender Disparities in Coaching Positions at the University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania has a series of wide-ranging funding gaps across a variety of sports, according to an analysis by The Daily Pennsylvanian. This includes significant disparities in the salaries of men’s and women’s coaches, recruiting expenses, and the costs of game day and other operations.

Most notably, the average head coach for a men’s team earned upwards of 40 percent more than the average head coach for a women’s team. For men’s teams, there are 15 head coaches, who made an average of $168,346 in fiscal year 2022. In contrast, the 14 head coaches of women’s teams made an average of $111,613 that same year — amounting to a 41 percent gap in pay between the two.

Differences in pay also extend to assistant coaches. The 45 assistant coaches of Penn’s men’s teams earned an average salary of $52,060. Meanwhile, 27 assistant coaches of the university’s women’s teams had an average salary of $41,617. While this disparity is not equal to that of head coaches, it still amounts to a 22 percent difference.

Beyond just salaries, the analysis shows that there are as many men coaching women’s teams as there are women coaching women’s teams. While all 15 head coaches of men’s teams are men, only seven out of 14 women’s head coaches are women.

There are just four women assistant coaches of men’s teams out of a total of 57. Thus women are just 7 percent of all assistant coaches on men’s teams. But 15 out of the 39 assistant coaches for women’s teams, or 38 percent, are men.