--- title: The Cost of Not Hiring Women Coaches description: Why are there so many men coaching women's sports and so few women coaching at all? canonical: https://time.com/3896935/women-coaches/ author: David Berri article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-01T21:51:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:08.709Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Cost of Not Hiring Women Coaches og:description: Why are there so many men coaching women's sports? og:url: https://time.com/3896935/women-coaches/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1e3347d1f71cfbfc/698851cccd6848730d0a00d4/amelie-mauresmo-andy-murray.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4126 og:image:height: 2321 og:image:alt: Andy Murray, Amelie Mauresmo london britain tennis queens club og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Cost of Not Hiring Women Coaches twitter:description: Why are there so many men coaching women's sports? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1e3347d1f71cfbfc/698851cccd6848730d0a00d4/amelie-mauresmo-andy-murray.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Cost of Not Hiring Women Coaches > Sponsored content. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: TIME Explains: Wimbledon [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Explains: Wimbledon](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/gkrZftxf.m3u8) (1:45)  _Published 2014-06-20. For two weeks each summer, the tennis world turns its eyes to the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon. Here’s what you need to know about the tournament’s history, the traditions and the best matches._  by [David Berri](https://time.com/author/david-berri/)  ## David Berri Jun 1, 2015 9:51 PM UTC  Andy Murray of Britain shares a laugh with his new coach Amelie Mauresmo during a training session before his Queen's Club grass court championships tennis match in London on June 12, 2014. Andy Murray of Britain shares a laugh with his new coach Amelie Mauresmo during a training session before his Queen's Club grass court championships tennis match in London on June 12, 2014.Sang Tan—AP  by [David Berri](https://time.com/author/david-berri/)  ## David Berri Jun 1, 2015 9:51 PM UTC Andy Murray, [the third-ranked](http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/Top-Players/Andy-Murray.aspx?t=rh) men’s tennis player in the world, has been coached by Amelie Mauresmo for about a year. He’s the [only top-50 men’s tennis player](http://www.espn.co.uk/tennis/story/%5F/id/12906001/andy-murray-praises-amelie-mauresmo-declares-feminist-women-key-success) coached by a woman. Murray recently told [RedBulletin](http://www.redbulletin.com/int/en/sports/andy-murray-i-have-opened-my-mind-0) magazine that he thinks that needs to change. --- > “” --- Murray’s right: There appears to be a level of unfairness in coaching. Becky Hammon, an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs, is the only full-time assistant coach in the National Basketball Association. In fact, she is the [only full-time female assistant coach](http://espn.go.com/wnba/story/%5F/id/11313239/wnba-san-antonio-stars-future-spurs-assistant-becky-hammon-was-born-coach) in any of the four major sports (Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, and the NBA). In the Women’s National Basketball Association, [50% of head coaches and 43% of assistant coaches](http://www.wnba.com/coaches/coaches.html) are men. There’s a similar pattern in college athletics. When Title IX was passed in 1972, 90% of women’s college teams were [coached by women](http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=theGlassWall). The act, which prohibited sexual discrimination in education, increased funding to women’s sports and [raised the wages of coaches](http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-03-26/women-on-the-court-need-more-women-on-the-bench) for women’s teams, which made these positions more attractive to men. In 2012, the percentage of women coaching women’s college teams had fallen to 43%. [Fewer than 1%](http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=theGlassWall) of men’s college teams have women coaches, and none of these are in Division I-A. Unevenness in coaching isn’t just unfair; it’s also bad business. As economist [Gary Becker](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/05/business/economy/gary-s-becker-83-nobel-winner-who-applied-economics-to-everyday-life-dies.html) explained, when a firm intentionally reduces the pool of talent it considers, it makes itself worse off. Consider the story of racial integration in the NFL. The Washington Redskins, which was the [last NFL team to integrate](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/sports/football/50-years-ago-redskins-were-last-nfl-team-to-integrate.html) in 1962, [won](http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/was/) about 36% of the games the team played from 1946 to 1962\. In the 16 years after the team integrated, Washington won 52% of its games. This seems to suggest the team was holding itself back by not hiring the best players. So why does such an uneven playing field for professional coaches exist? It benefits two groups who often push back against change: less-qualified male coaches and team management. If the talent pool for coaches included all qualified men and women, it could mean less-qualified male coaches might not be able to get jobs. It could also mean more work on the part of decision-makers to find and hire top talent. Some [argue](http://www.slate.com/articles/double%5Fx/doublex/2012/09/female%5Fcoaches%5Fwhy%5Faren%5Ft%5Fthere%5Fmore%5Fwomen%5Fin%5Fcharge%5Fof%5Fmen%5Fs%5Fteams%5F.html) that women couldn’t effectively coach sports like football or baseball because they don’t have experience playing those sports. But men don’t seem to need prior experience to coach women’s sports such as softball. In fact, R. Vivian Acosta and Linda Jean Carpenter [found](http://acostacarpenter.org/AcostaCarpenter2012.pdf) that the percentage of men coaching women’s college softball increased to 37.9% in 2012 from 16.5% in 1977. We tend to think of sports as a meritocracy. But the pattern we see in coaching suggests a different story. [Nicole LaVoi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAcipMsqwaw), a faculty member in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Minnesota, recently observed that coaching is one job market in which women have not made significant progress in recent years. The next time you see the coach of your favorite team, ask yourself how that person ended up in that position. Was it because he was the best person for the job? 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