Fifty-two years ago, the passage of Title IX prohibited sex-based discrimination in any school or other education program and altered women’s sports forever. Since that momentous day, women have continued to fight for positions of leadership in the NCAA. While icons such as women’s basketball coaches Tara VanDerveer of Stanford or Pat Summitt of University of Tennessee serve as examples of the progress that has been made, the war is not won and the fight for gender equality in coaching continues through the country.
Across all NCAA divisions, women make up 42 percent of head coaches for women’s teams but only 6 percent of men’s teams. In Division III athletics, the statistic is only 1.8 percent more equitable, with 43.8 percent of women’s teams coached by women. Despite its already inequitable statistics, both NCAA athletic programs in Claremont fail to meet this standard.
Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) sits below the national average with a mere 37.5 percent of female head coaches. Even further below, with only five of 17 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) women head coaches, CMS scores a lowly 29.4 percent.
Despite the low number of women coaches, according to CMS softball coach Betsy Hipple, the 5Cs are able to retain these coaches for long periods of time as a result of the supportive environment fostered within the athletic departments.
Hipple previously coached the Athenas from 2005 to 2017 and has since returned for the 2023-2024 season. In her time, she has taken CMS to the NCAA National Championship tournament six times. She spoke about the positive experience that she’s had in her years coaching in Claremont.
“I think the Claremont Colleges as a whole are pretty incredible places to work or to go to school,” Hipple said. “I just think [Claremont] is a very special place. I think in terms of being a female coach of a female sport, I’d be hard pressed to find an address where you were more supported and more believed in and I think that’s across the street too.”
Previously playing at DIII Shippensburg University and then coaching at Division I George Washington University, P-P softball coach JoAnne Ferguson said she has also witnessed the benefits of a small DIII athletic program that focuses on supporting its athletes and coaches, especially for women.
“It was great to come back and have a more holistic approach to coaching and teaching,” Ferguson said. “I have great female role models in this department and support administratively, so I feel like it’s a very positive place to be a woman coach.”
According to P-P women’s basketball coach Alaina Woo, role models are important in increasing the number of women in head coaching positions. Woo, a Pomona College graduate herself, said she was encouraged to make the move to coaching by her collegiate basketball coach Jill Pace. Woo got her first assistant coaching position at Tufts College under Carla Berube, who is now head coach of Princeton’s basketball program, before returning to Claremont in 2019.
“I think it makes a big difference for student athletes, or women who want to get into coaching, to have a good role model,” Woo said. “I’ve just been really lucky to work for two really good women who not only supported me and empowered me to get into coaching when I was a student athlete [but also] mentored me when I was an assistant coach [and continue to] still really support me.”
Ferguson explained how these role models can be of any gender.
“My dad started fast pitch softball in the area [I grew up in] because he had two daughters,” Ferguson said. “He wanted to give women an avenue to play softball … he would think it was so cool that I’m still coaching after all this time.”
Though Ferguson and Woo noted that the 5Cs have been successful in their retention of women coaches, this is not the case across the NCAA. Organizations like WeCOACH are attempting to increase not only recruitment, but also the number of women who stay on in coaching positions for long periods of time. According to Ferguson, one of the reasons retention rates can suffer for women coaches is a lack of sufficient support from athletic departments.
“Having full time and robust support staff within programs can help retain women,” Ferguson said. “I also think having support groups or affinity groups for women within departments can be really helpful and then even within their sport programs.”
All three coaches emphasized the importance of gaining experience as assistant coaches in their path to becoming a head coach, but Woo noted the difficulty many women face in getting their first big break.
“I think a lot of times people have a very specific idea of who they want as their assistant coach,” Woo said. “Being willing to take risks on recent grads, people who have a lot of passion, women who just really want to be coaches, I think is a really important part about getting women in the industry.”
However, even if they are able to overcome the hurdle of the hiring process, an easy time is not guaranteed. Once in coaching positions, women are still met with the challenge of unrealistic expectations and responsibilities that Ferguson said are gender-exclusive.
“I think sometimes the expectation of a white, male, cisgender coach is that they just coach,” Ferguson said. “This might be a perception I have, but I feel like I take on a lot more in terms of not just the sport, but you’re connecting with people and really balancing your relationships and your results.”
There is still significant work that needs to be done to make collegiate coaching jobs more accessible for women, allowing them to see a life in their sport after graduation.
“If you have a desire to play, [then] play,” Hipple said. “If you have a desire to be on the team, join the team. If you have any inclination that you think you might like coaching, try your hand at it. It’s a very fulfilling way to make a living.”
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