Date of Publication

12-11-2013

Document Type

Undergraduate Project

Professor's Name

Katharine Burakowski

Abstract

Throughout history gender discrimination has created barriers that have prevented women from achieving their desired career goals no matter what the work setting is. One way that steps were made towards the elimination of gender discrimination was the enactment of Title IX in 1972. Pervious research has examined barriers that women head coaches coaching men’s teams have had to overcome in order to acquire their position. The coaches who were used in that research either coached NCAA Division I men’s teams or all three divisions combined. The barriers these women experienced were both externally and internally barriers. The external barriers include: 1) unequal assumption of competence, 2) hiring from a principal of similarity, 3) homophobia, 4) lack of female mentors, and 5) difficulty recruiting male athletes (Kamphoff, Armentrout, & Driska, 2010, Kilty, 2006). The internal factors that exist are 1) perfectionism, 2) lack of assertiveness, 3) inhibition in promotion of accomplishments, and 4) high stress of balance work and lie (Kilty, 2006). The purpose of this research was to see if these same barriers exist at just the Division III level. Two women who coach NCAA Division III men’s teams were interviewed about their experiences coaching men. The purpose of this study was to better understand the experiences and barriers that Division III female head coaches of men’s teams go through.

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