The 2023 Women in Sport policy, again, highlights the need to continue to include more women and girls from grassroots to high performance in coaching and officiating.
In 2022, 42% of the coaches certified by Sport Ireland were female (N=11,555) (Sport Ireland, 2023). In the five-years prior to 2022, there was a 9% increase in female coaches (Sport Ireland, 2023). So, by 2027 can we expect to reach 50%?
We know that as the coaching levels increase, the percentage of female coaches decrease (Sport Ireland, 2020). Sport Ireland surveyed the National Governing Bodies (NGB’s) of Sport in September 2023 to understand the status of female high-performance coaching. Interestingly, 12 of the 18 NGB’s employ female high-performance coaches, 5 of these have an equal gender balance, 3 employed between 25-33% and 2 employ 10% of female high-performance coaches (Olympics Ireland, 2023). I am no expert but as a researcher, that to me sounds like a gap that needs bridging.
In the lead-up to International Women’s Day 2024, I felt it was fitting to write a blog on my experience as a woman in the world of coaching. However, I would first like to highlight the opportunities available for women in coaching both here in UL and nationally:
- The Student Sport Ireland Women’s student coaching academy (founded in 2021) aims “to provide female student coaches with a support system to enable them to develop and reach their coaching potential”.
- This was promptly picked up by UL Sport and quickly housed under their sports scholarship programme. Female students have an opportunity to coach their favourite sport, be acknowledged as a sports scholar and receive similar perks in exchange.
In the past 2-years of my PhD, I stumbled across this opportunity and decided to break into the field of coaching. I needed an outlet from my PhD, to spend more time outdoors and radically reduce my sitting time. I found my foothold here in the UL Wolves GAA club last year [a big thanks to DJ for taking me under his wing]. An experience filled with fear, the unknown but nonetheless, enjoyable and rewarding. Thankfully there is always someone willing to lend a helping hand, many of whom are part of PESS. The UL GAA club is truly a well-oiled machine. Fast forward to this year and the feelings are still the same.
In terms of silverware, there is much to celebrate particularly for our female teams. The Camogie team’s won the Ashbourne cup with an astounding 14-point victory and the Uí Mhaoilgain cup with a bittersweet 1-point win. On the ladies football front, the Donnaghy cup (4th team) booked their spot in the Higher Education Colleges All Ireland final, for the second year in a row, taking place in MTU Cork this Thursday 7th March. The Donnaghy cup team is managed by the capable hands of PE student Alana Ní Chuinneagáin’s, wishing them the very best of luck!
To sum up, we simply don’t have the numbers to say where UL stands in relation to women in coaching [oh look here is another gap!!]. However, UL Sport are certainly ahead of the mark in terms of embedded the Women’s student coaching academy within the sports scholarship structure here in UL. Let’s continue this conversation, if you know of any more opportunities for female coaches in Ireland to a) get started, or b) progress to the next level, comment on the twitter thread accompanying this post.
Caera Grady is a 3rd year PhD candidate in the Physical Education and Sport Sciences Department, UL. Caera’s research focuses on adolescent physical activity promotion. Caera’s research interest lie with complex intervention development and evaluation and is currently engaging in innovative co-creation methods to develop a toolkit that will support the communication of physical activity messages with adolescents in secondary schools. Outside of her research Caera engages in her own strength training and running. She also manages/coaches a UL ladies GAA team.
Contact: caera.grady@ul.ie. Follow on twitter: @Caeragrady2011
PESS News & Information 