Written by There is much talk in business communities in the need to change their practices to attract more employees from diverse backgrounds as well as women – particularly within traditional male dominated industries. More women than ever before, from all economic and ethic backgrounds, are visibly breaking down barriers that once would have held them back from pursuing their work role of choice. Industries are beginning to listen to our female leaders as they send out the clear message that there is no limit to what you can achieve as a woman, and more importantly industries are realising the true value of the inclusion of female employees.
UK Sport has also taken stock and is looking to improve gender diversity across elite sport. Only 10% of coaching positions across UK Sport-funded British Olympic and Paralympic programs are currently held by women. The goal is to have this increased to 25% within the next 4 years.
Female athletes through social media have become visible as they embrace the ability to create their own online presence and network freely to other females. They now no longer have to be perceived solely via the typically male dominant voyeurism prevalent in TV towards females in sport. Instead they now have more ownership on portraying their capabilities in a form celebrating themselves as an athlete. Social media has also given women more access to seeing what is possible, regardless of ‘society norms’ and have inturn helped open up male dominated sports to women. Notably GB boxer Nicola Adams who won the WBO female flyweight title in 2019 and who is an Olympic gold medalist. Nicola started boxing before it was legal for women to fight in the UK and when boxing gyms were not always open to or supportive of women. Nowadays boxing gyms are filled with women training and we have a lot to thank Nicola for in opening up the world of boxing and shock horror this she managed this as a black LGBT single woman. Another prime example is Sam Briggs an elite CrossFit athlete who is never shy in showing off her ’guns’ on Instagram or her gruelling workouts. She is one incredibly tough athlete. Yet watch any CrossFit games and the camera will barely give Sam any ‘close-up’ airtime. She does not fit the traditional male dominant media ‘aesthetically pleasing’ label and so her greatness as an athlete is belittled on national TV, which places more importance on how mainstream media rates her looks, which if you believe the media is the main ability to pull in the viewer. The word ‘appalling’ does not come close to how so many talented and high achieving female athletes have been and continue to be misrepresented by the media. This has in the past undermined greatly the value of depicting female athletes as much sought after role models to women across the globe – but now more female athletes are stepping into the limelight and using social media to champion their successes as well they should.
Athletes such as Nicola and Sam continue to challenge the traditional norm of women and, through their much-needed online presence, show what can be achieved regardless of looks/shape/size/sexuality/ethnicity and economic status. The world is now full of women who have embraced and outshone men in some of the hardest endurance events on our planet: Ironmans; Mudders; Ultra Marathons … the list goes on. This would not have been a common sight a generation ago – particularly when you acknowledge that the first year women could compete in the marathon at the Olympics was 1984.
We absolutely should be celebrating these role models to keep proving to other females that it is ok to ‘do you’ and own the courage in pursuing their ‘you’. However where we really fall short in sport are with the number of female coaches that are either visible on social media or within sports clubs. In the UK we are incredibly fortunate to be witnessing some extremely talented female coaches: Karen Brown, English Hockey who helped the team to win Olympic gold in Rio; Jenny Archer coach to David Weir, Paralympic wheelchair athlete (6 gold Paralympic medals among his accolades) and Mel Marshall coach to Adam Peaty, 8-time world record holder in breaststroke.
Not only are female role models important to show other women what they can also achieve (without conforming to mainstream’s media induced idea or peer pressure of the female), it also serves to educate men: remember ignorance always needs nurturing.
There is much I could divulge on being a female Head Swim Coach particularly as I have worked in male dominant environments for much of my adult life to include investment banking and the military, but it is only as a coach (within swim clubs) that my integrity has been challenged negatively all too frequently by my male peers. I am not going to digress further on the challenges of being a female within in this article, I will however end with emphasising that women need to have more arenas readily open to equipping them to develop in their field of choice, as well as more inclusion into coaching teams and sport. I hope that more women continue to realise the real need to keep championing other females for their skills and achievements and be less critical of themselves and their sex. It is more than ok to step out of traditional expectations and to keep pushing society’s norm of how women ought to behave; act; been seen. Female sport has come a long way since I was at school and there are now so much more enviable openings for our younger athletes. However there is still much to be done in the way of acceptance and inclusion for female coaches, and I therefore salute the initiative shown by UK Coaching in developing a well thought- out and structured women’s pathway within what is still a very male dominated career.