ABSTRACT
As the evidence will demonstrate, there is a dearth of women coaches in performance sport, and women coaches are under-represented more generally in coaching (Fasting and Pfister 2000). Although it can be argued that the coaching process as a concept is genderneutral, its implementation takes place in a social and cultural context and produces a skewed gender ratio. The institution of sport and its many sub-cultures can clearly be described as male dominated and this has received considerable attention in the academic literature (Hargreaves 1994; Clarke and Humberstone 1997; Scraton and Watson 2000). Despite recent increases of women in participation in active recreation, it is argued in the literature that opportunity and access are denied to women through a combination of overt, structural and hegemonic discrimination. In particular, elite sport, and the demands and values associated with it, are perceived to constitute a masculine arena in which women coaches do not play a significant role. Indeed, Hargreaves (1994) suggested that ‘coaching remains one of the most prestigious areas of sport which embodies grossly unequal gender relations’ (1994: 199).
