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The sport coaching profession is characterized by demanding environments that affect work-life balance. Accordingly, there is a need to examine the challenges coaches face in balancing their professional duties with their family and/or personal interests. This study aimed to gain a better understanding of the different experiences of work-life conflict that Spanish coaches face and how they perceive the support provided by their sport organizations in terms of work-life balance. The study was based on semi-structured interviews with a sample of seven male and eight female coaches in Spain. The results showed that the coaching profession had a negative impact on their personal and social lives, and coaches often prioritized their work. Family and friends' support (mainly wives for men and friends and grandparents for women) allowed coaches to continue in the profession. Organizations also implement actions to balance work and family/personal spheres, such as offering personal and financial support, adjusting schedules, and condensing training sessions. These results can help professionals better identify strategies to reduce work-life conflict among sport coaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study centres upon the accounts of master women coaches based in the UK, exploring how they have individually experienced such acts of resistance as reaching the top of such a male dominated profession. By going beyond previous positivist feminist approaches to this focus of inquiry, I employ a feminist cultural studies framework to understand how the social construction of what it means to be a woman impacts women coaches' individual sense of self and confidence to lead. The discussions are based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with six senior national women coaches of team sports in the UK. The data highlight the success of masculine hegemony of coaching through documenting women's reluctance to advance their coaching career through a lack of self-belief and motivation as a consequence of their culturally and historically marginal position. The findings illustrate a pressing need for a revision of the dominant values inherent in professional sport in order to engage and retain potential women leaders.

The purpose of this study was to assess the psychosocial work environment (PWE) of a sample of coaches in comparison with the reference values of the Spanish general workforce, as well as to explore the relationship between PWE and mental health, behavioral-stress symptoms, and burnout. A representative sample (N = 1,481) of Spanish coaches (18.1% women, mean age = 32.98 years, SD = 11.60) completed a battery of questionnaires. Results showed that, in comparison with the general workforce, coaches showed statistically significant differences in most of the PWE areas assessed. The emotional demands experienced by coaches are a health risk, while trust regarding management and recognition are positive features in their PWE. Coaches' emotional demands were associated with low mental-health scores and higher levels of behavioral-stress symptoms and burnout, whereas social community at work and role clarity were protective factors for health. Practical implications to provide more favorable work environments for coaches are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research recognises the existence of a dominant performance narrative in elite sport that values a 'win at all costs' attitude, prioritising sport over all other facets of life. This narrative commonly privileges dominant groups of men at the expense of marginalised men and many women. To interrogate this aspect of sporting culture further, this study offers a unique insight into the influence of the dominant performance narrative within the coaching context. Specifically, a narrative analysis approach was employed to explore eight female tennis coaches' career experiences. Findings suggest that career success was judged on adherence to the dominant performance narrative which required a single-minded dedication to coaching. Whilst some of the coaches aligned closely with this narrative, adherence to the exclusive nature of the performance narrative caused tension and conflict for others. The coaches who did not adhere to the dominant performance narrative resisted cultural norms and aligned themselves with other, less dominant narratives. This highlights that career success in coaching can be a multidimensional concept and importantly that organisational culture needs to change in order that alternative narratives become more available and validated. This could lead to coach identity being less tied to adherence to the dominant performance narrative and focused more on personal development and well-being. Ultimately, this may result in higher levels of female coach attraction, retention, and progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to explore strategies for the development of aspiring female coaches based on the ideas of existing high-performance female coaches. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with national-level female coaches in the United Kingdom, four recurrent ideas for developing female coaches in a male-dominated profession emerged. These were (1) role modelling and mentoring, (2) greater frequency and quality of coaching opportunities, (3) the creation of supportive networks, and (4) a policy of positive discrimination. Using a feminist cultural studies conceptual framework, this paper highlights how a culture dominated by masculine hegemony restricts the participants' opportunities for career development. Their experiences also reveal a lack of responsibility taken by governing bodies for the development of aspiring female coaches. As a result, I make a call for the inclusion of a more complex, sustained programme of socio-cultural education for coaches to inform women of the reasons for their underrepresentation as coaches, and call for greater action and leadership to be taken by sporting governing bodies.

Based on interview research, this study examined how master female coaches based in the United Kingdom experienced relations with men within their profession. Using a feminist cultural studies approach to examine how sport promotes and maintains a gender order unfavorable to women, we found that female coaches felt the need to continually prove themselves and often experienced coaching as a hostile and intimidating culture. Participants reported a gradual reduction in such unwelcoming behavior from men, seemingly because they had proved to be no threat to the existing patriarchal structure. A critical exploration of coaching is needed to understand how masculine hegemony leads to women's relative powerlessness as coaches. Furthermore, the findings present a case for a greater emphasis on sociocultural education within the UK coaching curricula.

While football remains mostly a sport associated with men and national identity, it has also become a popular sport for women and girls in Western countries. Despite this success, however, the coaching of football remains a strongly male dominated occupation. In this paper, we explored how 10 elite women coaches of national football teams negotiated and resisted the entanglement of techniques of biopower, sovereign and disciplinary power within the sport. The results revealed that sovereign power as exercised by Football Associations was intertwined with forms of discursive and biopower. This power constructed men as more knowledgeable about women's football than women who have years of playing and coaching experience at the elite level in the sport. Consequently, men are more often hired to coach women. In response, elite women coaches negotiated and resisted these forms of power by engaging in problematization, public truth telling/parrhesia, self‐transformation, and by creating alternative discourses about gender and football. They constructed their fellow women coaches as being more knowledgeable and more experienced than men coaches in women's football. The findings suggest that this use of a Foucauldian analysis into the entanglement of forms of power within such male‐dominated organizations and into the technologies of the self, utilized by women coaches, provides new insights into understanding the relative lack of change in gender ratio in (sport) leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines how UK sport organizations have framed race equality and diversity, in sport coaching. Semistructured interviews were used to gain insight into organizational perspectives toward 'race', ethnicity, racial equality, and whiteness. Using Critical Race Theory and Black feminism, color-blind practices were found to reinforce a denial that 'race' is a salient factor underpinning inequalities in coaching. The dominant practices employed by key stakeholders are discussed under three themes: equating diversity as inclusion; fore fronting meritocracy and individual agency; and framing whiteness. We argue that these practices sustain the institutional racialised processes and formations that serve to normalize and privilege whiteness. We conclude that for Black and minoritised ethnic coaches to become key actors in sport coaching in the UK 'race' and racial equality need to be centered in research, policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a globally recognised need for inclusive diversity among sport workforces, women are underrepresented in the inherently stressful profession of sports coaching. This study aimed to work with women sports coaches to answer the following research questions: 1) What demographic and contract-related factors are associated with job stressors? 2) What associations exist between job stressors, strain, and psychological wellbeing (PWB) at work? Women coaches (n = 217) volunteered to complete the revised version of An Organizational Stress Screening Tool (ASSET). Path analyses identified several groups of coaches (head coaches, "other" coaches, disabled coaches) who experienced more job stressors related to their coaching work. They also highlighted the importance of workload stressors and their detrimental relationship with psychological and physical strain but positive relationship with sense of purpose (i.e., eudaimonic wellbeing). Collectively, these findings offer the first assessment of women coaches' job stressors, strain, and PWB, and offer insight to factors that may influence coaches' engagement with the profession. They also highlight intervention foci for national governing bodies that are seeking to protect the health and wellbeing of the women coaches within their workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies the concept "blind spots" to describe partial approaches to "race" and gender equality agendas in sport organizations in the UK, drawing on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with Equality and Coach Development Leaders. Using the specific context of sport coaching, our qualitative approach is underpinned by critical race theory and the work of black feminism and intersectionality scholarship. Three key themes are identified: The marginality of "race" in the equalities agenda; Patterns of (in)visibility; and Whitening Equality. We argue that there is an urgent need for "race" conscious intersectional critiques of sport coaching. This is to examine the multiplicity and complexities of inclusion and exclusion for coaches and the different levels at which social divisions are constructed and interconnected. The paper provides a theoretical contribution to develop "race" equality research and outlines implications for policy-makers and practitioners to help challenge notions of meritocracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study centers upon accounts of master women coaches in the UK, connecting the participants' experiences of the structural practices within the coaching profession to their feelings of being undervalued and marginalized. By going beyond previous positivist and interpretive approaches to the issue of women coaches' underrepresentation, I locate the participants' narratives and their oppression within the wider sociocultural context of sport. The strength of patriarchy within sport and coaching is revealed in the private lives of the coaches. Consequently, the findings provoke methodological and theoretical implications for an alternative approach to understanding women's long standing minority status within sports leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study focuses on the demographic and labor characteristics of coaches in Spain. Kanter’s theory on occupational sex segregation will be used as a guiding framework. The study was conducted with 1685 coaches (82.3% men and 17.7% women) from different sports and performance domains. The results show that there is an underrepresentation of women as coaches in Spain and data highlight that coaches’ gender is related to three structural factors: opportunity, power, and proportion. The present data reveal that women are younger, less likely to be in a marriage-like relationship, less likely to have children, and more likely to have competed at a high level as an athlete when compared to their male counterparts. However, fewer women than men access and participate in coach education in Catalonia and the working status of women was different to that of men. To expand, women worked less hours, were more likely to be assistant coaches, and had less years of coaching experience. Understanding of how gender influences women’s access, progression, and retention in coaching in Spain illustrates the need for gender sport policies and practices in sport organizations. This approach can benefit not only women, but the diversity and enrichment of the coaching system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In shifting our gaze to the sociological impact of being in the minority, the purpose of this study was to substantiate a model of gendered social well-being to appraise women coaches’ circumstances, experiences and challenges as embedded within the social structures and relations of their profession. This is drawn on in-depth interviews with a sample of head women coaches within the UK. The findings demonstrate that personal lives, relationships, social and family commitments were sidelined by many of the participants in order to meet the expectations of being a (woman) coach. We locate these experiences in the organisational practices of high performance sport which hinder women coaches from having meaningful control over their lives. The complexities of identity are also revealed through the interplay of gender with (dis)ability, age and whiteness as evidence of hegemonic femininity within the coaching profession. Consequently, for many women, coaching is experienced as a ‘developmental dead-end’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]