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New research highlights how workforce design, leadership pathways and coaching culture are shaping the future of women’s sport.
Women’s sport is experiencing rapid global growth, with rising investment, visibility and participation across competitive and community sport. But while more women and girls are entering sport, new research suggests the systems supporting the coaches who shape those experiences have not evolved at the same pace.
Women in Sport’s Reimagining Sport Coaching: Designing a System That Works for Women identifies coaching as one of the least gender-equal areas of sport, highlighting how workforce structures, culture and career pathways continue to limit leadership opportunities for women.
Coaching Systems Under Pressure
Coaches shape how sport is experienced. They influence confidence, belonging and long-term engagement while acting as mentors and leaders across communities and high-performance environments.
Yet research shows persistent structural barriers remain. Women continue to be underrepresented in coaching, particularly in senior roles, and frequently face challenges around career progression, safety and recognition. These challenges are not isolated experiences but indicators of wider workforce design issues across sport.
More Than a Participation Issue
While coaching is often discussed through the lens of youth development, research makes it clear that coaching systems influence participation and leadership across the lifespan. Coaches shape participant retention, community engagement and talent pathways, linking community participation to elite sport.
Coaching is also one of the most influential leadership roles within sport — and one that remains heavily male-dominated, continuing to shape culture and decision-making across the sector.
The Hidden Demands of Coaching
One of the clearest findings is that coaching is often sustained by passion, flexibility and personal sacrifice rather than stable workforce conditions. Roles frequently include mentoring, safeguarding, emotional support and community leadership responsibilities that are essential to participant experience. However, these aren’t always reflected in compensation or career progression.
Many roles are volunteer or low pay, contributing to many talented coaches being unable to stay in their roles long-term. Research highlights how unstable employment and insecure contracts make coaching difficult to pursue as a long-term career, with women disproportionately affected by these conditions.
Coaches themselves describe the tension between the passion that draws them to the role and the realities of working within under-resourced systems. As one shared:
“All of this has to happen in our own time, at our own expense which is more of an issue with the cost-of-living crisis. I have to rely on my partner to support our family financially which is less than ideal – you don’t go into coaching for the pay.”
Cultural Barriers and Leadership Gaps
Beyond employment conditions, research highlights cultural challenges shaping women’s coaching experiences. They report feeling less heard, less valued and less comfortable being their authentic selves in coaching environments, factors that directly influence retention.
Women also experience bullying and harassment at significantly higher levels than men. Often driven by gender bias and reinforced by male-dominated leadership structures, these experiences are contributing to higher attrition rates and limited representation.
These challenges are increasingly being understood not as individual barriers but as indicators of systemic design issues across coaching. Career pathways remain unclear, and development opportunities are inconsistent or underfunded, limiting progression opportunities for many.
Across sport organizations, there is often strong stated commitment to gender equity, but research highlights a persistent gap between leadership ambition and coaches’ lived experiences.
A Moment to Redesign Coaching Pathways
The growth of women’s sport presents an opportunity to rethink how coaching is structured, supported and valued. Building inclusive coaching structures requires addressing employment stability, strengthening development opportunities and improving workplace culture and safeguarding systems.
Fair compensation, clearer career progression and stronger wellbeing protections can strengthen participant experiences while expanding leadership pathways for women across sport.
Strengthening the Future of Women’s Sport
As participation and visibility in women’s sport continue to rise, the sustainability of that growth will depend not only on who plays, but on who is supported to lead and build sport communities.
If coaching systems are redesigned to work for women, they have the potential to create more stable, transparent and inclusive environments for everyone involved in sport.
The connection between coaching representation and participation is increasingly recognized across the sector. As Chris Boardman, Chair of Sport England, notes:
“If we are serious about closing the gender activity gap, women and girls must feel safe, valued and supported — and see women in senior coaching and leadership roles, visibly proving that sport is a place where they belong.”
To explore the full findings and recommendations, read the Women in Sport report Reimagining Sport Coaching: Designing a System That Works for Women.
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