Original research article International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching Women coaches at top level: Looking back 1–12 © The Author(s) 2022 through the maze Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/17479541221126614 journals.sagepub.com/home/spo Marta Borrueco1,2 , Miquel Torregrossa1,2, Susana Pallarès1,2, Francesca Vitali3, and Yago Ramis1,2 Abstract Framed in the Ecological-Intersectional Model and the Stages of Career Progression Model, the objective of this study was to explore how women coaching in high-performance settings advanced through the ‘bottle-neck’ path. In total 13 women coaches from Southern Europe between the age of 28 and 46 years working in high-performance contexts were interviewed. In order to assess both the subjective perceptions of participants and the structural factors that pre- vent women from accessing top-level positions, we adopted a critical realist perspective to perform a thematic analysis. Results show that while women coaches may follow a linear coaching career path in their early career stages, once they try to progress to high-performance settings their careers are shaped by the metaphor of a maze. Women need to navi- gate through a maze while having to overcome jeopardizing factors to find a succeeding career path in sports coaching. Moreover, previous experience as elite athletes, close entourage, role models, organizational support, precarious working conditions and motherhood influenced women’s development of a coaching career, with differing relevance depending on the career stage. Women coaches who reach top-level positions associate their success with casual or external factors, instead of causal explanations related to their own achievements. We add evidence on the specificities of women’s coach- ing careers that should be addressed not only to improve their recruitment and professional progression, but also to work on reducing the probabilities of women exiting the role. Keywords Career development, gender, motherhood, organizational support, role models, sport leadership A high-performance coach is ‘someone coaching highly suggests they are most likely to feel isolated,7 experience skilled athletes in a sports environment that focuses primar- gendered microaggressions,8 resist different forms of ily on performance, as opposed to fun or athlete develop- power to thrive,9 and that they are at a higher risk of ment’1 (p.304) and is expected to achieve successful stress and mental health issues.10,11 outcomes at the highest level of competition.2 With Research on women’s underrepresentation within sports regard to women in coaching positions, evidence suggests coaching has been ongoing for the past decades and the accu- that they are present in development sport (i.e. focussing mulated evidence suggests that many varied and complex on skills improvement and where the workforce nature is predominantly voluntary), but not so present in high- performance contexts, which prioritizes competition out- Reviewer: Courtney Boucher (University of Minnesota, USA) comes.3 Additionally, as the responsibility and visibility 1 of the position increases, the culture of sports aggravates Grup d’Estudis en Psicologia de l’Esport de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain this minoritization and marginalization of women 2 Sport Research Institute UAB, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, coaches.4 High-performance coaching implies extra respon- Bellaterra, Spain sibilities including social, managerial, marketing, media, 3 Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, financial, and even legal aspects,5 and in the case of the Section of Movement Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy few women coaching in high-performance settings, this Corresponding author: overload generates additional impact by being the ‘only’ Marta Borrueco, Grup d’Estudis en Psicologia de l’Esport de la Universitat women in their working environment.6 Scientific literature Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain. focussing specifically on high-performance women coaches Email: marta.borrueco@uab.cat 2 International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching 0(0) barriers along with a lack of support explain the paucity of causes women coaches to experience marginalization and women coaches regardless of country,12,13 sport,3 and level lack of control of their coaching progression, especially of competition.14,15 LaVoi and colleagues structured the find- when aiming to high-performance contexts.34,36–38 ings on the topic of women in coaching positions developing In response to the need of advancing in the study of the Ecological-Intersectional Model (EIM).15,16 This model, women’s coaching careers, LaVoi and Boucher developed originally based on Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model,17 the Stages of Career Progression Model (SCPM) as an evo- allows the examination of barriers and resources that influ- lution of the original EIM,27 which considers different ence women’s experiences in sports coaching from a multi- stages in women’s coaching careers. The stages are as system approach. Literature based on this, but also in other follows: (a) entice, characterized by encouraging, convin- approaches, has evidenced far more barriers than supports cing, and enticing women into sports coaching; (b) entry, at individual, interpersonal, organizational, and sociocultural referring to the initial movement into a coaching position; levels that may explain the discrimination of women in coach- (c) engagement, containing aspects related to the participa- ing.16,18 Among other inequities, women coaches have lower tion of women with, and in, their workplace and colleagues; salaries, fewer opportunities, poorer working conditions and (d) exit, related to voluntarily or involuntarily leaving a relationships, and more conflicts between coaching and coaching position and (e) energize, where resilience is fos- family commitments than their male counterparts19–21 due tered and the focus is on renewal and personal growth. to a lack of organizational policies and cultural norms.22 These phases describe the transformation of the career The underrepresentation of women coaches is associated over time mainly considering the perspective of the individ- with power relations in sports,23 which is considered as a ual, but acknowledging the influence of people, networks, male-dominated social context where men occupy dominant organizational structures, power systems, societal norms social roles over women (hegemonic masculinity).24,25 Still, and ideologies in which the coach is embedded. coaching is heavily associated with male characteristics and As a consequence of these advances in high-performance women are considered invaders when holding positions of women coaches, we know already ‘why’ women have diffi- power.26 culties to access top-level positions. However, we still want Despite the plethora of evidence and suggestions to tackle to know ‘how’ some coaches manage to advance through this long-standing problem, the continued underrepresenta- the ‘bottle-neck’ to access those top-level positions tradition- tion of women in the coaching contexts, and especially in ally occupied by men. By drawing on the SCPM27 our study top-level positions, has revealed a need to go beyond a ‘snap- explores the trajectories of women who accessed high- shot’ approach about barriers and resources. In this sense, performance settings to add evidence on the factors that facili- LaVoi and Boucher suggested that exploring women tate progression to top-level coaching positions. We seek to coaches’ careers will be useful to know where and when to provide a greater understanding of women’s coaching support by (a) offering located resources at a specific eco- careers and the interplay of barriers and supports at different logical level and career stage and (b) identifying critical career moments. To do so, we position this study within a crit- aspects that may cause the exiting of coaching.27 ical realist approach, intending to acknowledge not only Considering that the investigation of coaching careers is at women’s personal experiences but also structural elements its early stages,28 scholars suggest two main trends related in sports context that may explain why women following to this research topic. The predominant assumption is based similar career paths ended up reaching different outcomes on linear stage-based career models in which coaches are typ- (e.g. high-performance coach vs. dropping out from coach- ically former athletes who progress to high-performance con- ing). Such an approach served to identify situated elements texts through the accumulation of experience and knowledge that will provide more nuanced knowledge on how to and/or thanks to personal characteristics associated with support women coaches across their trajectories. excellence.29,30 A second trend, however, questions the applicability of linear models in high-performance coaches.31–34 In particular, this second trend suggests that Method linear models ‘ignore individual backgrounds, sociocultural This study followed a critical realist perspective, which sub- and contextual differences, and significant life scribes to the assumption of one external reality that can be events’,34(p.118) hence, more holistic perspectives that illus- understood, evaluated, and studied but never totally compre- trate the complexity of individual career development are hended due to the existence of inaccessible factors (onto- needed. Literature on specific women’s coaching careers is logical critical realism and epistemological modified especially scarce but a common conclusion is that women’s objectivism),39 understanding experience as ongoing and coaching careers and progression to top level follow a inseparable from the sociocultural domain.40 Drawing on ‘bottle neck’ pathway.35 This analogy suggests that the Bhaskar’s multilayered conception of reality,41 scientific higher the women climb, the more constricted the pathway realism aims to move beyond the surface level (i.e. observable and opportunities become, and only a few women manage and empirical data) to identify the underlying processes or to reach the top of their profession35(p.455) This narrow road structures that produce the studied phenomena.42 In the Borrueco et al. 3 present study, we sought to build on the structures of sports interviews following Jeffersonian guidelines.45 The dur- coaching context that produce the reality of high-performance ation of the interviews ranged from 24 to 103 min, produ- women coaches through the connection of their experiences cing 70 min on average. across their coaching careers (i.e. empirical data) and explana- tory theories and concepts used in women in coaching literature. Data analysis We conducted a thematic analysis from a critical realist per- spective,46 in which the first author read actively through Sampling and participants recruitment the interview transcriptions several times to become famil- We sought the experiences of women that had been involved iar with the data. A list of data-driven themes was then ela- in high-performance settings (considered as those environ- borated from the first transcript through inductive ments which are mainly focussed on performance) for at reasoning. This process was repeated for each interview least 5 years who either (a) were working as head coaches and, additionally to generate emerging codes from each or (b) had the highest level of coaching education and were interview, we deductively checked the similarities of the involved in a technical staff but not as coaches. These profiles participants’ experiences. From the demi-regularities and allowed to detect elements that facilitated the progression of similarities between codes, all authors generated a list some and caused the abandonment of others. In total 13 with themes about participants’ intentions, hopes, concerns, women from the Southern Europe context between 28 and feelings, and beliefs captured in the data. Next, all authors 46 years old (M = 36.4; SD = 6.7) participated in the study. met several times to convert that list to a list of themes Table 1 shows the characteristics of the participants in that offered plausible explanations of women coaches’ terms of their professional situation, the positions they were experiences through abductive (abstract conceptual rede- occupying, the type of sport they were involved in, the scriptions) and inductive reasoning. Finally, all authors highest coaching and academic level reached, and their age. reviewed and summarized the themes and discussed about To provide participants the freedom for openness during the existence of structural elements influencing in the data collection without compromising confidentiality given studied phenomena, to then categorize them all into the that they could be easily identifiable in high-performance EIM and the SCPM. In this work, we define saturation as sport contexts, we do not provide specific details regarding the moment in which relevant information to answer their sport and we use pseudonyms to protect their initial research questions has been found.47 identities.43,44 In relation to the ethical issues within the research, we considered participants as experts and their experiences as primary sources of evidence. We approached their trust- Data collection worthiness through member reflections (e.g. Can you Following approval from a university research ethics com- explain this further?) and reflective questions (e.g. Is there mittee (reference 4996), all participants were contacted anything else you wanted to explain? Did you feel comfort- through the first author’s social networks and email, and able sharing your experiences?) at the end of each inter- agreed to partake in the study. Participants signed the view.48 Moreover, while all authors were involved in the informed consent after the first author provided information analytical process, the second and last author also adopted regarding the voluntary nature of the study. Between June the role of critical friends by dialoguing and reflecting on and November 2020, we conducted synchronous computer- the possibility of multiple truths, perspectives, and results mediated interviews via ZOOM with each participant at in the research process.48 times convenient to their schedules. The in-depth semi- structured interviews aimed at collecting evidence of women coaches’ experiences throughout their journeys to Results high-performance coaching. Interview guides were In the following section we organize the results in three sep- designed based on existing literature exploring the experi- arate sections according to the stages of the SCPM: (a) early ences of women sport coaches16,18 as well as considering career stages, the entice and entry into coaching, (b) progres- coaching careers from a life-span perspective.27 We sion to top-level positions, career engagement and (c) remain- included questions on: (a) women’s background in sport, ing in top-level positions, the exit and energize stages. The (b) how they were enticed into their first coaching roles, main themes that drifted from data analysis include previous (c) experiences during the early stages of their careers, (d) experience as an elite athlete, influence of close entourage, how coaches progressed (or not) to high-performance envir- presence or absence of role models, (lack of) organizational onments and experiences in their current positions, (e) support, precarious working conditions, and motherhood aspects related to their tasks that influenced their wellbeing (see Table 2). Experience as elite athletes, backing of the (f) reflections on the role of women in sports coaching. We close entourage, presence of role models, and organizational recorded both audio and video and transcribed all support suggested a linear progression at early career stages 4 International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching 0(0) Table 1. Characteristics of the interviewed women coaches. Professional contract/ Type of Participant other occupation Position sport Highest coaching level Education levelsa Age Ingrid Yes/no Head coach Team Senior, highest national ISCED 3 (upper secondary 46 level general education) Julia Yes/no Head coach Team Senior, ISCED 6 (bachelor’s or 45 high-performance equivalent level, professional) centre Roser Yes/no Head coach Team Youth, professional ISCED 6 (bachelor’s or 33 academy equivalent level, professional) Gala Yes/no Technical staff Team Senior, highest national ISCED 6 (bachelor’s or 36 level equivalent level, professional) Celia Yes/yes Head coach Team Senior, highest national ISCED 6 (bachelor’s or 35 level equivalent level, professional) Nuria Yes/yes Head coach Individual Senior, ISCED 3 (upper secondary 44 high-performance general education) centre Carla Yes/yes Head coach Team Senior, highest national ISCED 6 (bachelor’s or 36 level equivalent level, professional) Gemma Yes/yes Head coach Individual Youth, ISCED 6 (bachelor’s or 28 high-performance equivalent level, professional) centre Jana Yes/yes Head coach Team Youth, highest territorial ISCED 6 (bachelor’s or 32 level equivalent level, professional) Patri Yes/yes Sport Individual Youth, professional ISCED 6 (bachelor’s or 30 psychologist academy equivalent level, professional) Sonia Yes/yes Sport Team – ISCED 6 (bachelor’s or 45 psychologist equivalent level, professional) Natalia No/yes Head coach Team Senior, highest ISCED 6 (bachelor’s or 28 territorial level equivalent level, professional) Judit No/yes Assistant Team Senior, highest national ISCED 6 (Bachelor’s or 43 coach level equivalent level, professional) ISCED = International Standard Classification of Education. a Structure of the European Education System. but, as participants progressed to high-performance settings, level being aware that it is common for women to leave the successful career paths were more difficult to find, and the sports context completely after retirement to start a profes- linear progression was disrupted. From that stage on, partici- sional career in other fields. Although developing a career pants in top-level positions needed to advance through a as elite athletes, only one of them fast-tracked her way to maze, turning over when they faced dead-end paths looking a top-level coaching position. The other 12 started as devel- for alternative routes that allowed access to high-performance opment coaches, sometimes combining their roles as ath- coaching generating sufficient financial income to live and letes and coaches for a few years, and without initial guarantee work–family conciliation. expectations of progressing professionally: ‘I never thought of becoming a professional or reaching the position I’m currently at, I simply wanted to coach while working Early career stages: The entice and entry into somewhere else’ (Celia). Regardless of the start, previous coaching experience as elite athlete provides useful but insufficient In this stage, participants inform about their previous career resources to manage the transition from athlete to coach, as elite athletes along with support from their close entou- as participants report difficulties in their early stages: ‘I rage and sports organizations to enter the coaching career. expected coaching to be easier, that my experience as an However, they also indicate a lack of role models that athlete would be enough to understand athletes’ needs, prevent them from starting in the coaching profession. but I have realized it doesn’t work that way, it is more dif- Focussing on the individual level, experience as an elite ficult’ (Gemma). athlete paved the way to start a coaching career. All partici- One aspect at the interpersonal level that facilitated pants had previously developed an athletic career at a high entering into coaching was the availability of a supportive Borrueco et al. 5 Table 2. Summary of the themes derived from the data analysis and their correspondence with the Stages of Career Progression Model (SCPM). Theme SCPM Quotation example Experience as an elite Early career stages: entice and entry ‘Doors open easier if you are an athlete, people from the club know the athlete into coaching effort you put into your athletic career, so they hire you because they expect you will also do well as a coach’ (Patri) Progression to top-level positions: ‘If they [the club] know that an athlete wants to be a professional coach career engagement doors may open, especially if this athlete has performed well and helped the club to win titles, that is what happens at the highest division’ (Carla) Close entourage Early career stages: entice and entry ‘My parents supported me in the decision to become a coach, especially into coaching because they knew that I was not abandoning my academic career’ (Gemma) Progression to top-level positions: ‘The training schedule makes it too hard. You need to have someone career engagement offering strong support if you want to be a coach because there are too many things you need to deal with!’ (Carla) Role models Early career stages: entice and entry ‘The most basic aspect is knowing that you can make a career out of into coaching coaching. The first thing you need is to have someone you can look up to and follow and see that it is a possible path to follow’ (Patri) Progression to top-level positions: ‘There aren’t any women occupying a coaching position in the highest career engagement level, there is nobody there. So, you ask yourself: am I going to be the first? No, there is no chance, it is too difficult’ (Sonia) Organizational Early career stages: entice and entry ‘As an athlete I always had a close relationship with the club, so they support into coaching wanted me to be a part of the coaching staff. They were glad to keep me around as I knew how things worked’ (Natalia) Progression to top-level positions: ‘They [directive board] proposed me to be the head coach, and I ended career engagement up occupying that position but at first the [male] coordinator didn’t trust me. At that time there weren’t many women coaches so maybe he didn’t trust that we [women] would be appropriate for that role’ (Gemma) Precarious working Remaining in top-level positions: the ‘Being a coach can help you earn some money, but it is complicated conditions exit and energize stages because you have one-season contracts, and you need to have another job to compensate’ (Ingrid) Motherhood Remaining in top-level positions: the ‘It is not only about the decision of becoming a mother. When the child exit and energize stages is born, you will have to devote yourself to them, you will need to reduce your dedication to coaching’ (Gala) close entourage. Family support ‘plays a key role, you make they offer 10 women athletes to coach a team, maybe one the decision, but it is important that your close ones help or two will end up enjoying it and want to keep progressing you and encourage you to do it’ (Celia). A barrier at the (Judit). interpersonal level that hindered women’s interest in coach- ing was the lack of female role models, which may explain why women are hardly enticed into the profession: ‘the first thing you need is role models, if you have someone you can In this sense, offering athletes a coaching role within the look up to, you will know what you want. If there aren’t club was perceived as a win–win practice because it is a any, it’s hard to perceive it [coaching role] as a plausible way of promotion and, as Natalia explains in her case, option’ (Celia). In general, participants reported that their ‘the club was very happy that I agreed to accept the job first coaching role was offered by the clubs in which they because I had been playing there for some years and I developed their athletic career, increasing their interest in already knew how everything worked’. From the sport fed- coaching. Therefore, at the organizational level, sports eration perspective, there are promotional initiatives such as organizations enticed and supported the entry of women sponsoring women’s coaching education also important for into coaching. Moreover, sometimes clubs offered the pos- enticing women into coaching: ‘the federation offers a 50% sibility to combine the last years of the athletic career with reduction on coaching education fees for women, which coaching positions in development sport to increase ath- may encourage women to enroll in these courses’ (Jana). letes’ commitment to the club: Becoming coaches is not the normative step for female athletes, in part due to the lack of role models. However, If you’re happy in a club, you are playing with friends and the minority wanting to start a coaching career are offered surrounded by people with whom you’re comfortable and opportunities to start in development sport. 6 International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching 0(0) Progression to top-level positions: Career engagement scarce’ (Sonia). Therefore, sports organizations should increment the number of women on directive boards Participants suggest that having been an elite athlete and ‘because there is strength in numbers and maybe then having connections with people in power positions facili- there would be more women coaches’ (Judit). In addition, tate the progression (or not) to top level. Moreover, this pro- participants reinforce the importance of having men who gression is hindered by the lack of role models and the lack are already in power positions acting as allies by supporting of opportunities provided by sports organizations. While the development of women coaches: entering is partially supported not only by close entourages but also by sport organizations, a key decision in women’s It was a mere coincidence, he saw my CV on the table and coaching career is staying in development sport or progres- recognized me, the directive board, which consisted of only sing to more competitive contexts. Participants stated that men, asked him if he knew me and he said yes, so they hired the normative step is to either stay on development levels me to be his assistant. I think that communication by word or abandon their coaching role to transition to an alternative of mouth is more effective than having a perfect CV professional career: (Roser). [Being a coach] it is more common while you are studying In addition, the presence of women lowers in coaching or retiring from sport, you have been in the sports context education courses as the level increases: ‘you find a lot of for a long time, so you start working in it. But at the end women on level 0 where the goal is to safeguard children’s most of them will end up choosing to develop profession- development. At level 1 women start to fade and at level 2 ally in their academic field (Gemma). there are three or four, so you wonder … what is going on?’ (Sonia). This gradual reduction implies that women However, being a former elite athlete opened the door to abandon the coaching careers and are less qualified and, progress to top-level positions at the individual level. in consequence, less considered for top-level jobs. Ingrid explained how it was almost a requirement because ‘[those who] weren’t elite athletes can be as well-prepared as me, but if they aren’t well-known former athletes Remaining in top-level positions: The exit and maybe the doors won’t open’. Nevertheless, this sine qua energize stages non condition for women is insufficient when competing Data analysis showed that sustaining top-level positions for a coaching role with former male elite athletes, as the depends on women finding a way to generate sufficient latter will always be prioritized in detriment of women: ‘a financial income to live and to conciliate the work–family male coach who’s been an athlete has much more probabil- domain, reinforcing the maze metaphor referred to ities of being hired than any women and that’s why more women’s coaching careers accessing to top-level positions. male athletes are becoming coaches, they enter the profes- sion more easily’ (Roser). At the interpersonal level, the lack of female role models Precarious working conditions. Participants intending to also acted as a barrier preventing women from wanting to develop a professional career in coaching often needed to progress to high-performance contexts because ‘if men accept precarious working conditions. Women will not occupy fourteen out of sixteen coaching top-level positions, become coaches, and especially will not want to engage you may think it is not a common path to follow. It is almost in the role, if they perceive it is not possible to make a impossible for you to be there, like having an invisible wall living out of that career. Two participants stated that they in front of you’ (Celia), which leads them to stay in devel- exited the coaching profession due to the lack of profession- opment sport. alization of the role: ‘the fundamental aspect [needed] is At the organizational level, the support women coaches knowing that you can develop a decent coaching career, perceive from the sports context (i.e. clubs, federations, the first thing is to facilitate the professionalization of the sports organizations) is essential to develop a professional role’ (Patri). At the same time, the precarious working con- coaching career, and results show how assistance provided ditions led high-performance women coaches to combine in their early career stages declines as the coaching career their coaching role with other professions to generate suffi- advances to more professional endeavours. The clubs offer- cient income which, in turn, compromised their wellbeing ing women coaching positions in development sports did in the energize stage. High-performance women coaches not provide opportunities to access coaching roles in high- reported tiredness and ill-being symptoms associated to performance settings, and this lack of opportunities may the demands derived from the role and multiple works cause women to reach a dead-end in their attempts to they needed to engage with: ‘this whole semiprofessional engage in their coaching careers. Participants suggested level involves this handicap. In the morning you need to that ‘the problem is that women’s presence in positions work to earn money and then go to training in the that have the power to offer development opportunities is evening, and by the time you get home is almost midnight’ Borrueco et al. 7 (Judit). Another aspect that compromised their mental continue in the coaching pipeline and it needs to be health was related to the task of being a high-performance addressed to energize women in coaching positions. coach, and coping resources were sometimes perceived as Participants suggest that the decision to become mothers insufficient considering the demandingness of the role: is a turning point in women’s coaching careers. It is a ‘you are in charge and that requires a great effort, you cause of abandonment of many due to the uncertainty of need to invest a lot of time and you are under a lot of pres- how it is going to affect their jobs and, those who decide sure and sometimes I don’t have the resources to cope with to continue in coaching after childbirth, report difficulties everything’ (Celia). on the work–family conciliation due to the lack of policies A support at the organizational level was being aimed at supporting mother coaches. Gala explained that employed (part or full time). Women who were employed women coaches are unaware of how pregnancy can affect as coaches could prioritize sport over other jobs, which their position: ‘[maternity] is a taboo. I am not thinking often were complementary and part-time (e.g. teacher in about it now but what if I were? I have a job in which I coaching education courses). However, not all women don’t know what would happen and no one there [at the coaching at top level had a contract of employment, so club] would have an answer to that’. This uncertainty most of them needed to prioritize other jobs as their main about motherhood is often accompanied by fear of losing financial income. Multiple occupations can be detrimental their coaching job: ‘I planned everything in detail because for the sustainability of women coaches’ careers: ‘it is I was afraid I would lose my job. I have ten-month contracts very hard, especially if you focus on the work domain, which I renew every year, and I feared that I wouldn’t get because you need to survive and up to day we can’t make renewed’ (Roser), which altogether may explain why a living out of sport’ (Celia). An organizational barrier women who want to be mothers either stay on development that may cause women to abandon coaching roles in high- sport or exit coaching. In this sense, women considering performance settings was the uncertainty regarding their motherhood end up facing the decision between following future as they are evaluated based on their teams/athletes’ a coaching career or having children: ‘it is hard for results: ‘reaching the top means insecurity. You will get women coaches at high-performance settings because better paid, you’ll have resources but maybe in two when we have a child, we have to stop for two or three weeks you’ll get fired’ (Jana). Additionally, Gala described years and that places you out of the professional market’ the difficulty of long-term planning due to the temporality (Julia). Nuria also described how she reduced her dedica- of their professional contracts: tion to coaching to focus on her family: I’ve been a professional for more years than I can remember I stopped coaching at my club. Now I want to devote myself and I have always had one-season contracts. I sign until the to my family and to work on the family company in the season ends in June and then I don’t know what will happen mornings. I’ve gone from being the lifelong coach-manager (…) there is a real possibility of firing the whole staff if we of a club to be a mother. start losing games. So long and medium-term goals are not for me, I don’t want to have high expectations because I This is aggravated in sports that imply travelling for don’t want to get disappointed. competitions, which is something usual in high- performance settings, as travel requirements may interfere If women coaches could, they would prioritize sport: ‘I with family responsibilities. This aspect is also relevant would love to train in the mornings, waking up and going for aspiring women who may perceive they cannot pursue to train and that my workdays were like that’ (Natalia). In a coaching career at top level if they want to have children: fact, although a minority, some of them were dedicated exclusively to coaching and this type of dedication sup- If you are a high-performance coach and you need to travel ported the development of their careers: ‘I’ve been a profes- for 30 weeks a year, the situation gets worse, it is very hard. sional for four years and that changed my whole life, I’ve In fact, I think that it is one of the main reasons stopping us been able to buy a car, which I couldn’t do before. Now I [women]. I want to be a mum, I have talked to my partner can imagine a future with my husband, have children and and it is difficult to make the decision because in the end buy a house’ (Roser). you need to lower the dedication to sport or to motherhood. Therefore, women will not advance through their labyr- We need a solution because right now it is very difficult to inthic coaching career unless they find an open door to combine the two spheres (Gemma). being employed as coaches, preferably full time and as pro- fessionals to reduce the risk of mental health problems The support of the close entourage at the interpersonal caused by multiple occupations they usually need to have. level facilitated mother coaches development in high- performance contexts. As the demands associated with Motherhood and the work–family balance. Motherhood is the coaching role increment, women need more resources considered a key factor affecting women’s decision to to balance their coaching career with the work and family 8 International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching 0(0) domains. Parents and partners are the key agents providing because mothers will take care of their newborn. I am this support at this moment of their trajectories. For sure they are good fathers, but it feels like we [women] instance, Roser explained how ‘I leave my daughter with have an extra responsibility when it comes to parenting. my parents because she does not go to school yet and I have to leave for work every morning’. In a similar way, Therefore, women coaches intending to thrive in high- Carla exposes how her husband is her only support: performance settings need to find an available path that allows the combination of being mothers, with all the asso- The only one helping me is my partner, he is the one paying ciated responsibilities, and their coaching careers. the price. He is the one dealing with everything I can’t manage because there is no help or anything. Let’s imagine I get divorced in the future, who is going to take Discussion care of my children when I go to train at night? I’d have This study presents a pioneer empirical examination of to pay for a babysitter, which is not cheap, and with what high-performance women coaches within the Southern I earn from coaching it is not enough. It is so hard, we Europe context using the SCPM,27 offering insights into have to find a way. the interplay of barriers and supports at different career stages, as well as structural elements that should be The support of the close entourage was essential to com- addressed to tackle the gender imbalance in coaching. pensate the lack of support perceived at the organizational Findings show that women’s coaching careers in high- level. Mother coaches demand specific actions and policies performance settings have a linear start with identifiable towards the work–family conciliation. For example, Roser entry doors to coaching positions, but after the entice and reported difficulties during pregnancy as her club had entry stages, the path to progress to top-level positions never experienced a similar case, so they had to create an gets more challenging to find, and their careers eventually ad hoc action protocol: take the shape of a maze. Findings in this study suggest that while there are individual and interpersonal factors sup- When I was 28 weeks pregnant the medical services called porting early career stages (i.e. entice and entry), once me to carry out a labor inspection because it [pregnancy] women coaches try to advance to professional coaching wasn’t considered a possibility within the coaching position positions (i.e. engagement stage) the main path gets since they never had a similar case, they never had to blurred and organizational and structural factors limit arrange a pregnancy leave before the child was born as their progression, hindering their personal growth and they only had male coaches. I was going in and out of the forcing some women to choose between engaging or hospital for three weeks just to determine the risk that preg- exiting (i.e. exit and energize stages). This idea challenges nancy had for the job and how they could manage the previous literature suggesting that coaches follow linear situation. models of career development, symbolizing career progres- sion as a ladder and implying an advancement through nor- This need of support during pregnancy was also per- mative career steps.30 In that sense, the findings align with ceived throughout the development of their career as evidence suggesting that women survive more than thrive in mother coaches: the current sports system.9,49,50 Hence, this study reinforces the need to study women coaches’ careers from viewpoints I’ve gone to competitions with my daughter and the organ- adapted to their reality and not from traditional career ization told me she couldn’t be on the field because it was models developed from a male perspective.27 dangerous. What can I do? Where do I leave her? She High-performance women coaches in our study are came with me and I have to coach the game. Federations unaware of how they reached top-level positions and should do something. The image of coaches having their report casual (i.e. with no planning or intention) or external children on the bench should be normal (Carla). (e.g. through allyship) reasons for their success, in detri- ment of causal explanations highlighting their own achieve- At the sociocultural level participants consider they hold ments.51 This perception reinforces the idea that there is no more responsibilities regarding children care in the work– existing career path for women coaches who want to family conciliation, which may slow down women’s coach- achieve top-level positions. ing career progress and interferes in their energizing. Roser Moreover, this work is oriented in studying women explained how she found differences between her and her coaches’ trajectories evaluating each career stage to under- male colleagues in this regard: stand the particularities of each period. Supporting and lim- iting factors’ relevance varies across women’s career Five male coaches had children at the same time as me. stages. Experience as a former elite athlete is key to entering None of them took days off for being a father. They do the coaching profession and it is seen as the only way to not even think about reducing their coaching dedication progress to high-performance settings. While previous Borrueco et al. 9 research suggested that hiring former elite athletes as their male counterparts.19 High-performance women coaches is common,38,52 our findings go beyond by point- coaches often have multiple jobs to be financially stable, ing that, for women, this is practically a non-negotiable which, added to the demands derived from their role condition. Athletic experience does not exempt women might arise ill-being symptoms such as burnout, putting coaches from facing difficulties derived from the change women in increased risk situation of presenting mental of role (athlete to coach), which points out the need of sup- health issues.10,11 Therefore, the professionalization of porting women during this transition to facilitate the entice women coaches is necessary to improve their working con- and entrance into coaching, and preventing women from ditions, which in turn will safeguard their mental health. abandoning this role due to those difficulties. We thus Motherhood is not considered to be influential on emphasize the need of studying coaching careers from a women’s decision to become coaches in the first place, transitional perspective, as a process with several stages but it becomes relevant in the decision of progressing to with specific demands that need to be successfully coped top-level positions and in the engagement, exit and energize one by one to sustain in the career.28 stages. In addition to supporting previous literature suggest- The lack of role models seems to be perceived as a key ing that children caretaking is unbalanced between reason that may explain why such a low number of women genders,20,59 this study adds that uncertainty about the decide to engage and energize to professional coaching con- impact of motherhood on women’s profession due to the texts. This invisibility has previously been noted in lack of policies that may explain why they disrupt their research,25,27 which also suggests that visible same-identity careers when they decide to have children or slow their pro- role models increase women’s self-perceptions in male- fessional progress more acutely than their male counter- dominated professions and inspire female athletes to parts. In this line, support strategies should be aimed not pursue a coaching career.53,54 Consequently, policymakers only to energize and support mother coaches in the work– in sports organizations should work better to increase the family conflict but also to support women who want to number of women occupying coaching roles giving them have children by supporting them during pregnancy. the notoriety to existing role models. Although clubs regu- Finally, results also show a need for a structural change larly provide women with their first job as coaches and in the sports context. Sports is a male-created and male- sports federations entice women to coach education, a dominated social context in which hegemonic masculinity lack of organizational support is perceived when consider- still prevails and men are seen as worthier and more compe- ing opportunities to access high-performance coaching tent to occupy coaching positions.19 In this sense, sport pol- positions and engage with the coaching role.55 Our partici- icies are created by and for men, which may explain why pants report that progression in women’s coaching career the combination of motherhood with a coaching career is usually depends on the opportunities provided by a man still an unsolved matter in the sports context. in power, thus supporting evidence about the importance of gender allyship to allow women coaches’ development. Gender allyship considers men as part of the solution as Practical implications they occupy most power positions within sport organiza- The results of this research suggest that sports organizations tions, so they can create change by hiring and promoting should develop more actions to promote the engagement of women coaches56 not only to increase the number of women in their coaching careers. For instance, national women coaches but also to create organizational and cul- governing organizations, sport federations and clubs tural change within the sports systems.57 could develop initiatives to increase the visibility of exist- The close entourage seems of key importance for women ing female role models to inspire young athletes to follow coaches both at the entice and entry stages by supporting similar pathways after retiring from sport. In addition, the women’s decision to become coaches (i.e. family),52 and development of women-only coaching education courses also becomes even more crucial further in the career, should be considered to entice women into coaching and when women engage with the coaching role by supporting to increase the number of women progressing through the work–family conciliation (i.e. partners).20,58 The coaching education levels. support from the close entourage is essential because it Previous athletic experience has shown to be necessary compensates the lack of organizational support perceived but not sufficient condition to cope with the demands in relation to the working conditions and motherhood, derived from the coaching context. In consequence, men- which we suggest as two structural aspects that can lead torship programs in which expert coaches supervise women to engage or exit the coaching pathway and novice coaches can be useful to facilitate women’s entry hinder their personal growth. More research on this topic to coaching positions and to prepare them with necessary and the role of all the agents involved in the entourage is skills to sustain and thrive in their role and even when needed. women coaches engage in the profession and have the When looking at working conditions, women tend to intention to access high-performance positions. In addition, occupy more precarious leadership roles in comparison to fostering gender allyship should be a goal for policy 10 International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching 0(0) makers, addressing actions and initiatives to those (mostly highlight complexities of the sports system not washing men) occupying power positions within sports organiza- out differences and inequalities under the unitary category tions to educate on their key role in: (a) creating positions of ‘women’. Lastly, results outline the presence of mental for women not only in coaching but also within the whole health issues in high-performance women coaches but this sports context and (b) creating an organizational culture topic has not been specifically addressed in this research. that appreciates gender equity. In a similar line, national Future research should further investigate how being a and international government bodies ought to develop coach and, especially being a high-performance women actions to provide resources to advance on the professional- coach, impacts on mental health of this population. ization of women’s sport to answer the need of specific reg- ulations for women (e.g. support for motherhood), including mother coaches (e.g. support for the work– Conclusions family conciliation), and the need of improving working Through an exploration of factors influencing women’s conditions (e.g. better salary to focus exclusively on the coaching careers in high-performance settings, we enligh- coaching career). In that direction, Career Assistance tened how women navigated through a maze full of obsta- Programs60 may provide support for the optimization of cles to sustain in their positions rather than following linear women’s coaching careers, in addition to safeguarding trajectories and advancing through normative steps as if their mental health and promoting their wellbeing. they were climbing a ladder. The available supports refer to individual characteristics (e.g. former elite athlete experi- Limitations and future directions ence) or to resources provided by the close entourage (e.g. family, partners), being mainly present in early stages of This study contributes to the literature regarding women in their careers (usually) in development sport. However, as high-performance coaching settings but there are a number women try to progress into positions with more power, of limitations that should be addressed. First, the main responsibilities, and visibility (e.g. high-performance objective of this work was to retrospectively explore the tra- coaching context), the number of barriers increase and jectories of women coaches, hence participants may not mostly refer to organizational and structural aspects. recall clearly all their past experiences. Future research These limitations reinforce and sustain the marginalization should develop momentary evaluations aimed at further of women not only in coaching but also in other leadership exploring each career stage and the transitions between roles in sport. We add evidence supporting the notion that them to generate more situated and specific knowledge,28 women should not be blamed for their lack of presence in as well as considering interviewing women at each stage the sports context25 and that obtaining leadership roles is of the model. This work includes examples of women more than a matter of luck.51 Accordingly, we call attention who abandoned their intention to become high-performance to the structural and societal constraints that hinder coaches and transitioned to alternative professional careers women’s access to leadership roles, so women who are to provide different narratives regarding the meaning of able to reach top-level positions do it ‘despite of’ and not success in sport.61 Those considered nonsuccessful stories ‘thanks to’ the current sports system. belonged to women who never coached in top-level posi- tions, so future research should explore the reality of high- performance women coaches who decide to disrupt their Declaration of conflicting interests career once in the top level or get fired, especially with The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect ‘older’ women coaches (more than 50 years old) as research to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. suggests it is more difficult for them to re-enter the profes- sion.62 No participants in this study were in the latter stages Funding of their careers, hence exploring this population would add The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for more evidence regarding the exiting of the profession. the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This Moreover, more research on the energize stage is needed work was partially supported by the Generalitat de Catalunya to understand the needs and requirements to not leave or under the grant FI-DGR 2018 (2018FI_B_01099), the Healthy re-enter the profession. On a different level, details of par- Dual Careers project (RTI2018-095468-B-100) funded by the ticipants in this study were not provided to preserve their Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, and confidentiality (e.g. sports they coach). There is a lack of the Spanish network for the promotion of the professional career diversity among participants as most of them were white of female referees, judges and coaches (REFERENTE: 05/UPR/ 21) funded by the Spanish Consejo Superior de Deportes. and nondisabled. In this sense, we explore the experiences of women without drawing attention to compounded or overlapping forms or systems of oppression (e.g. ethnic Ethical approval origins, sexual orientations, class, or ability/disability), so This study was approval from a university research ethics commit- future research addressing intersectionality is needed to tee (reference 4996). Borrueco et al. 11 Informed consent biopsychosocial approach: a perspective paper. 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