Sport Ireland has released an interactive toolkit designed to provide practical support to sports bodies, to recruit, develop and retain women in coaching.

The Toolkit is informed by research conducted by Sport Ireland into active and inactive coaches and instructors in Ireland on their coaching experiences.

The Sport Ireland Women in Coaching Research Report 2021 identified barriers to progression in coaching which included time constraints; sexism and gender-related issues; lack of confidence; lack of National Governing Body and club support and parental factors.

The Women in Coaching Toolkit aims to overcome these barriers to participation and progression for women coaches and to encourage, support and drive organisational change.

It remains the case that the vast majority of coaches in male and female sport are men. This is largely driven by a history of more men having competed and thereby having greater confidence in coaching.

Pathway

As the playing population continues to surge among young girls and women, the ‘normalising’ of that traditional pathway from playing to coaching and remaining involved in the sport for women as much as men are really important.

There are arguments put forward that family life works against women getting involved at the same time of their life as men do but if that were to be true rather than a stereotype then it would apply to all forms of teaching and volunteering, which it clearly does not.

“Sport relies on leaders and decision-makers to create a culture and environment in which women feel valued and equal in sport,” said Sport Ireland Women in Sport lead Nora Stapleton.

“Sport relies on these leaders and decision-makers to drive change in their organisations to get more women into coaching and support the growth and effectiveness of these coaches.”

“Organisations are already doing great work in this space but if we’re to truly see a step-change in the makeup of coaches at the highest level, then the implementation of the content of this Toolkit is central to that.”

“Coaching and officiating is a key pillar of the Women in Sport Policy,” added Sport Ireland CEO John Treacy.

“Significant work has been undertaken to broaden the coaching base to include more women from grassroots to high performance. This toolkit is the culmination of research and will be a practical support to the sector.”

“We know that there are fewer women coaches in Ireland than men and that the percentage of women coaching versus men declines as the level of sport increases. The information included in this toolkit will support organisations as they look to change this trend. This Toolkit will support key stakeholders at all levels to begin to create an inclusive environment and support women coaches to get involved in and remain in coaching roles.”

Chapters

The toolkit consists of four chapters and should be read in conjunction with the Women in Coaching Research Report.

It is available as a downloadable PDF and also an interactive online resource. The Online Toolkit allows users to navigate easily to the section which is most relevant to them and their organisation. Ensuring that this is a user friendly and adaptable resource, suitable for every organisation regardless of where they are in their journey.

Each chapter contains a list of suggested actions that will support or contribute to plans the organisation might put in place. These can be saved to a personalised action list and downloaded at a later stage. This personalised action list can be merged into the organisation’s own plans or used as conversation pieces in planning meetings when discussing women in coaching with the wider stakeholder group.

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