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Women in Coaching

Women in Coaching

The ICCE has committed to develop a global ‘call to action’ to increase the number of women in coaching at all levels.

A working group was set up to design and develop a programme of workshops for the IWG world conference on women and sport in Finland in June 2014. The focus of the sessions was to collate and integrate feedback on the first draft of the ICCE Women in Coaching Call to action, entitled ‘Winning Women – closing the gender gap in elite coaching’ and specifically to:

  • Expand the network of organisations that can help influence positive change for women in coaching
  • Gather examples of good practice
  • Showcase case studies from around the world
  • Identify volunteers to run pilot projects and activities
  • Create a network of women who want to further the advancement of women and coaching globally
  • Develop the Helsinki legacy on ‘women in coaching’

The participants agreed to a ‘CALL TO ACTION’ to create a step change in diversity in elite coaching:

  • Through a process of Collaborating with international and national sports agencies to work together to create change
  • During the sessions a set of high impact actions, that leaders (individuals and organisations) can take to ‘change the game’, were identified and discussed 
  • Individual participants committed to specific actions to close the gender gap in elite coaching. At least 40 personal commitments to action were recorded and collated under the headings:

Research and evidence
Develop, fund and publish research to provide evidence and monitor progress pf the strategy

Role models
Showcase our current female coaches to motivate and inspire the next generation

Mentoring
Identify and train mentors to support female coaches to enter coaching and progress through the system

Recruitment and progression
Create opportunities for elite athletes to transition to coaching

Learning environment
Create the right learning environment and qualification structure that attracts women and encourages them to progress

Policies
Investigate the impact of setting quotas and targets to increase the opportunities for women in coaching

Managing family and lifestyle
Provide support to enable women to balance coaching and a family

The ICCE has set up a “Women in Coaching” working group to set and monitor the Winning Women strategy and report on progress at the Global Coaching Conference in Finland 2015.

At the ICCE Global Coaching Conference in Finland June 2015 further two ‘Women in Coaching’ sessions were run with over 70 participants attending. The main aims of the sessions were to:

  • Identify solutions and recommendations to address the lack of female coaches in elite sport
  • Contribute to the ICCE call to action for a collaborative and strategic approach across the globe to tackle this important issue

During the workshops further evidence for the ICCE Women in coaching ‘call to action’ was gathered and there were examples of best practice and research from around the world to show how challenges are being overcome