ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on gender stereotypes as an exclusionary mechanism keeping women from entering taking up coaching positions and education programmes in football. It looks at a societal level the extent that football can be seen as masculine, which is associated with (stereotyped) expectations to the coaching role. As the statistics reveal, there are obviously mechanisms of social exclusion that significantly influence the access of women to coaching positions and educational programmes in football. The evaluation of the coaching role in football is still linked to male stereotypes and women who want to become football coaches must deal with such stereotypical ideas about the fit of women and football. Low acceptance based on the masculine connotations of the expectations of the position of coaches in football prevents potential female coaches from entering a position as a coach. As a result, some women tend to question their own skills and competences as a coach in response to gender-specific attributions of competence.
