by Katherine Manherz TORONTO (CUP) — Chris Harron entered the classroom and waited for the instructor. It was the first day of a week-long certification program for hockey coaches. Scanning the room, she realized she was different from every- one else. She was the only woman in the class of 60. Harron, head coach of the York Yeowomen hockey team, is the only woman to have graduated from the National Coaching Certificate Program during the last three years. During that time, the program has graduated 22 men. Hardly any women coach women’s teams in Canada, and none coach men’s teams. The“question is, why? There's a tendency to believe that gender equality is much more preva- lent today. But when we look at the number of women coaches compared Fomals Coaches Still Have A to the number of women athletes, we realize that women are still severely under-represented in the coaching ranks. Some say there are few women en- tering the coaching profession because many of them aren’t accepted as strong leaders. The irony is that women who have become successful as coaches have usually done so by leading their teams to national championships. Take Cathy Shields, for instance. Shields was previously the head coach for the University of Victoria bas- ketball squad and her team has finished in the top ten every year she’s coached. “She has won the CIAU title six times. Shields was awarded coach of the year in '79 and ’92. Currently she is taking the year off to concentrate on the wom- en's national team which has qualified for the World Championships. She believes that technical skills can 50 - 8th STREET NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. VSM 35N8 PHONE: 524-9788 FAX: 524-4983 We go to great lengths. Other Press SPORTS always be learned, “but whether you’ve got good people skills” is what really makes a good coach. What also makes a good coach is having the time to dedicate to the craft. “Coaching is extremely demanding, and it’s extremely time-consuming and emotionally draining. We're starting to get more women in coaching but keep- ing them is really difficult,” Shields said. “We lose a lot of good young women because it’s such a hard juggle with family life. The majority of men don’t have the ultimate [family] respon- sibility... that women still ultimately do have.” Even if a woman has all the ability and the dedication to make coaching her profession, there are still other bar- riers. They have to be accepted by the informal network of men which runs sports. Anne Hall is a professor of physical education at the University of Alberta and she has been involved with women in sport for the past thirty years. Hall was part of a team that studied “The Gender Structure of National Sport Or- ganizations”, a project funded by Sport Canada. In the study Hall found that barri- ers to women’s participation (at any level) in sport are “more firmly en- trenched and much more difficult to address” than they first appear. The study identified four major bar- riers to women entering coaching: *The powerful, informal networks among men; *The lack of female role models, as well as the lack of support for women who could be role models; *The attitudes of both males and fe- males towards female participation; and *The lack of commitment by women past a certain level of involvement. “There have been enormous ad- vances and changes,” Hall said in an interview. “Women’s sport is so differ- there are still real areas of inequity and (women) can’t seem to overcome them.” But women have spent years trying to overcome the barriers that exist in the coaching sphere. In 1921 women were formally refused entry into the Ol- ympics. In response, Madame Alice Millat of France formed the Federation Sportive Feminine International (FSFI). By 1928, as a result of Millat’s efforts, women were active participants in the Olympics. Beginning with only five nations, the FSFI grew and by 1936 thirty na- tions were participating. Even with this rapid growth, the International Olym- pic Committee (IOC) still tried to dis- courage women from participating in athletics. They did this by opposing the FSFI. Shirley de la Hunty, an Australian former track and field athlete and coach, commented on the eventual disband- ment of the FSFI. In the book Sports- women Towards 2000 , de la Hunty writes that the IOC eventually laid the FSFI to rest. “It was not thought appro- priate that women were in charge of international events,” she wrote, add- ing that it was thought to be “the right- ful-province of males.” Currently the IOC has on its staff 7 women and 93 men. With 257 events open to men and 86 events to women, men compete in almost twice as many Olympic events as women. Because they have so many more op- portunities to gain valuable experience, men usually beat women in competi- tion for top coaching positions. “There’s a greater background of men who have played at a high level and have made coaching a career,” said Cathy Shields. ‘Doc’ Ryan is head coach for the women’s basketball team at Saint Francis Xavier University and assistant coach for the men’s national team. Ryan has ex- perience coaching both men and women and believes there is no differ- ence in their dedication to the game. A coach's job is according to Ryan, is “relating to people, whether it’s male, female, black, or white... and I think that the most qualified person should do the job.” Last year Ryan’s position was called into question and the university was considering hiring a woman to fill his dentials, there was no question, Kyan modestly noted. Most student athletes agree that coaches should be hired by ability, not by gender. Kelly Hessian played for Ryan in her first year. She is now a returning stu- dent in the education program at Francis Xavier. “The best coach may be a man,” she CHEAPER THAN A TATTOO Essays Resumes Letters Letterhead Typesetting Recycled Paper id. “I don’t always think that the best oach for female athletes is always go- g to be a woman.” But female coaches say the only way ey re going to become the best is by rking together toward that goal. The CanadianAssociation for theAd- cement of Women and Sport and hysical Activity (CAAWS) was created 1981 with the belief that only when omen begin to speak together on ports issues, will they be heard. Making it clear that only through a mmitment to equity and accessibil- ty will national sport organizations be unded, the CAAWS forces national port organizations to hire more men, not only in coaching, but in areas of employment. York University, for example, estab- ished a gender equity program in 1988. Athletic Director Mike Dinning ieves that York has to meet two goals. ey have to have as many women oaching women as possible, and they ave to have an equal number of wom- en’s and men’s teams. Dinning said he’s frustrated trying o find qualified female coaches. “The March 12, 1994 Long Way To Go To Reach Equality whole system stinks. You've got to find women to coach your athletes and there aren’t any out there.” York has gone so far as to offer an apprenticeship program that will assist women in becoming certified coaches. Dinning said this will “help make up for the historical difference”, the lack of training women have had. Even with the best possible train- ing, women coaches still have to be ac- cepted by the male sports community. Anne Hall believes it is publicly con- sidered “unacceptable for women to coach men. Men won't accept it. It goes all the way back down to primary school. Very strong societal attitudes suggest women cannot control boys or men.” When York coach Chris Harron be- gan coaching in the Metro Toronto Hockey League she was faced with situ- ations where she was singled out be- cause of her gender. “Iremember having a problem with a vice president who told me that I wouldn't get any little boys on the team if I put my name down as the coach,” she said. “Then it came down when a lot of parents, mostly the fathers, ac- cused me of coaching like a woman.” Because of this pressure, many women deliberately adopt a masculine coaching style. “Women bring different strengths and it is a very different game and it’s less valued,” said Sue Vail, coordinator of York's sports administration degree program. “Higher, faster, stronger is part of a man’s game. But different is okay.” Coaches of teams at elite levels are believed to be coaching ‘masculine’ women who might need a strong hand. Harron doesn’t believe that coaching has to be ‘masculine’ at all. “The passion, creating a team, bringing together something and mak- ing a unit. In hockey, as a coach you have to unite them to perform a com- Greg Malszecki is a professor ot Physical Education at York University. He is currently completing his Phd on women in sport. “There’s very little acceptance for women coaching men and women are losing their jobs coach- ing women,” he said, “even as wom- en’s sport becomes more important and better funded.” Malszecki believes that part of the problem is that women believe times are changing for the better even though studies show that women are still not attaining equitable grounds in the sports arena. “People tend to believe that affirma- tive action and pay equity and social equality as defined by law can be legis- lated. But at the level where most of us live the visible institutions, like sports that celebrate men’s lives, women can’t be equal because they’re not there” Malszecki asks us to question why, if $350 million in taxpayer money went to the Skydome, have we never seen women’s teams perform there? Female coaches are also faced with an extra load of prejudices. If they're not married, their sexual orientation is questioned. If they have a family then society tends to believe that they should be with their family, acting as a nurturer, and not on the road with the team. Perhaps Malszecki sums it up best. “We'll have equality when a woman can walk into a team meeting as head coach and nobody notices that she’s a woman.” Phone 432-1461/Fax 431-6322 # Do you like sports? F Then inquire about the opening for Sports Reporter. Come to room 1020. Phone us at _ 525-3505. lou wil dee beng rs Tee