--- title: Number of Female Coaches College Sports Team Decreases description: Find out how the number of women coaching female college sports team has decreased since Title IX was enacted in 1972. canonical: https://time.com/4720834/number-female-coaches-college-sports-declines/ author: Samantha Cooney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-31T19:12:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:05:19.888Z og:title: The Number of Female Coaches in College Sports Has Sharply Declined Since the ‘70s og:description: 'It’s critical that we need to do something to stem the decline' og:url: https://time.com/4720834/number-female-coaches-college-sports-declines/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9d659621d2de0ef2/6988c0d297cdff3ddf6b0088/womens-basketball-coach.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: 2017 NCAA Div II Women's Basketball Championship og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Number of Female Coaches in College Sports Has Sharply Declined Since the ‘70s twitter:description: 'It’s critical that we need to do something to stem the decline' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9d659621d2de0ef2/6988c0d297cdff3ddf6b0088/womens-basketball-coach.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Number of Female Coaches in College Sports Has Sharply Declined Since the ‘70s > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Mar 31, 2017 7:12 PM UTC  COLUMBUS, OH - MARCH 24: Virginia Union's AnnMarie Gilbert coaches against Ashland during the Division II Women's Basketball Championship held at Alumni Hall on the Ohio Dominican University campus on March 24, 2017 in Columbus, Ohio. Ashland beat Virginia Union 93-77 to win the championship. (Photo by Jay LaPrete/NCAA Photos via Getty Images) COLUMBUS, OH - MARCH 24: Virginia Union's AnnMarie Gilbert coaches against Ashland during the Division II Women's Basketball Championship held at Alumni Hall on the Ohio Dominican University campus on March 24, 2017 in Columbus, Ohio. Ashland beat Virginia Union 93-77 to win the championship. (Photo by Jay LaPrete/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)Jay LaPrete/NCAA Photos—NCAA Photos via Getty Images  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Mar 31, 2017 7:12 PM UTC The number of women leading women’s college sports teams has dropped since the enactment of [Title IX,](http://time.com/2912420/titleix-anniversary/?iid=sr-link1) a law that outlawed gender discrimination in educational programs receiving federal funding, in 1972\. The New York _Times_ [reports](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/sports/ncaabasketball/coaches-women-title-ix.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&%5Fr=0) that female coaches led 90% of women’s college teams across 24 sports in 1972\. That percentage has since fallen to only 40% in 2016, according to a [report](http://www.ncaa.org/static/champion/where-are-the-women/index.html) released by the N.C.A.A. The reasons for the decrease included the influx of men interested in coaching women’s teams, perceived gender bias, fear and discrimination among lesbian coaches and the strain of travel on working mothers. **_Read More:_** [**_A Female NBA Head Coach Will Happen ‘Sooner Rather Than Later’_**](http://motto.time.com/4718212/nba-commissioner-wants-female-head-coach/) “My biggest concern is that young women are not often getting the opportunity to have a female coaching role model,” Nicole M. LaVoi, the co-director of the [Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport](http://www.cehd.umn.edu/tuckercenter/), told the _Times._ “That’s detrimental to their development.” To attempt to address the problem in basketball, the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association will hold a workshop during its convention this week to inform graduating female players about the possibilities of pursuing coaching as a career. “It’s critical that we need to do something to stem the decline of women in the coaching profession,” Anucha Browne, the N.C.A.A.’s vice president for women’s basketball championships, told the _Times_. \[[The New York _Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/sports/ncaabasketball/coaches-women-title-ix.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&%5Fr=0)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4720834/number-female-coaches-college-sports-declines/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4720834/number-female-coaches-college-sports-declines/"},"headline":"The Number of Female Coaches in College Sports Has Sharply Declined Since the ‘70s","datePublished":"2017-03-31T19:12:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:05:19.888Z","description":"'It’s critical that we need to do something to stem the decline'","url":"https://time.com/4720834/number-female-coaches-college-sports-declines/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9d659621d2de0ef2/6988c0d297cdff3ddf6b0088/womens-basketball-coach.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Cooney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9d659621d2de0ef2/6988c0d297cdff3ddf6b0088/womens-basketball-coach.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2017 NCAA Div II Women's Basketball Championship","caption":"2017 NCAA Div II Women's Basketball Championship","creditText":"Jay LaPrete/NCAA Photos—NCAA Photos via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4720834/number-female-coaches-college-sports-declines/","name":"The Number of Female Coaches in College Sports Has Sharply Declined Since the ‘70s"}}]}] ```