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Study: Women coaching women on the decline

The good news is that the 1996 update of a 19-year study of the status of women in intercollegiate athletics shows the number of women's teams per school to be the highest it has ever been.

The other news is that the increase of females as coaches reported in the 1994 update of the study has not continued. The 1996 update shows that 47.7 percent of women's teams coaches are female, down from 49.4 percent in 1994 and 48.3 percent in 1992.

The news concerning female administrators is mixed.

The study is an ongoing project of Linda Jean Carpenter and R. Vivian Acosta, professors at the City University of New York Brooklyn College. It was begun in 1977 and encompasses all four-year college and university members of the NCAA with intercollegiate athletics programs for women.

The study notes that an extraordinarily large number of schools recently entered the NCAA, mostly from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. While the schools still are provisional members of the NCAA, because of their large number they may have a skewing impact on the general data in future years as they attain full membership.

Separate baseline data have been obtained on this group and are available from the authors. A copy of the Acosta/Carpenter study can be obtained by sending a stamped (55 cents), self-addressed envelope for each request to Carpenter/Acosta, Department of Physical Education, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, New York 11210.

The authors note the positive effect of Title IX on gender equity, although more so for students than for administrators and coaches.

"Our 1996 data may lend some support to the belief that greater adherence to Title IX and the educational and moral imperatives for equity is evolving, at least in terms of the student-athletes' participation opportunities," the report states. "Title IX has, in practice, been a more effective tool for obtaining equity for students than for coaches and administrators."

Findings in the 1996 update include:

* The average number of teams offered has increased to 7.5 percent per school, the highest since the beginning of the study when the number of teams was 5.61.

* In 1996, all three competitive divisions continue to show an increase in the number of sport offerings for their female athletes. Basketball, volleyball, tennis, cross country and softball continue to be the five most popular women's sports.

* For head coaches of women's teams in the NCAA, 6,580 positions exist, an increase of 209 jobs from 1994. But women hold 3,138 -- nine fewer than in 1994 despite a growth in the number of teams by 209.

In 1972, the year Title IX was enacted, more than 90 percent of women's teams were coached by females and in 1978, the year of mandatory Title IX compliance, the number had dropped to 58.2 percent. Some of the large change from 1972 to 1978 is due to the massive increase in the number of teams offered for women (about 2.1 to 5.61 teams per school). Similar circumstances might explain some of the 1996 drop; the number of women's teams increased markedly in 1996.

* In programs where the head administrator is a female, more of the coaches of women's teams are female. Division I is the leader of this trend.

* Women hold 61.1 percent of the 5,902 paid assistant coaching positions for women's teams.

* Although males became coaches for women's teams in great numbers after the passage of Title IX, there has been no concomitant entrance of women into the coaching ranks of men's teams. In fact, only about 2 percent of the head coaches of men's teams within the NCAA are female and almost all of those are coaches of combined men's/women's teams.

* 18.5 percent of women's programs are headed by a female administrator; this is a decrease from 21 percent in 1994. The decline in this overall percentage is mostly the product of a decline in the representation of females as directors of women's programs in Division I. It is almost twice as likely that a female will be in charge of the women's program in Division II as in Division I and more than three times more likely in Division III.

* Less than one female per school is found within the administration of women's programs. This is true even though 77.3 percent of intercollegiate athletics program have more than one administrator.

Division I is most likely to include a female within its administrative structure with 1.36 females found within the administrators per school. However, the study says that the females are most often quite far down the administrative hierarchy and are seldom at the policy-making level. In fact, there are more female college presidents in each competitive division than there are female athletics directors over both men's and women's athletics.

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In a reversal of the current trend of litigation under Title IX regulations designed to increase opportunities for women, a new public school in New York City has drawn criticism because it will be an all-girls school.

Civil rights groups, including the National Organization for Women, filed a federal challenge in August to a newly approved, all-girls public school in New York.

The complaint filed with the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights alleges that the formation of the Young Women's Leadership School in East Harlem violates federal antidiscrimination laws.

The complaint says the school's "gender-based exclusionary admissions policy and practices" violate Title IX, New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Norman Siegel told The Associated Press.

Title IX more frequently is associated with equality for women in college sports, but it provides that no one should be subject to discrimination on the basis of sex under programs receiving federal funds.

Anne Connors, NOW's local president, said that just as her group would condemn an all-boys school, it also must condemn an all-girls school.

"One cannot discriminate with public funds, even if we're being told there is a good end," Connors said. "This goes to the core of NOW's history. This is not an easy issue for our organization, but it is an issue we take very seriously."

Supporters of the school say girls learn better with no boys in the classroom, but NYCLU's Siegel has charged that school officials have neither defined the problem of gender inequity nor explained why a separate school would be the best solution.

The last all-girls public school in New York City, Washington Irving High School, was ordered to admit boys in 1986 because of fears that it violated civil rights laws.

Officials at the Young Women's Leadership School have said they will accept applications from boys, but critics contend that is just an attempt to get around antidiscrimination laws and that there is no evidence that boys actually would be admitted.

* * *

Colgate University and its women's club-level ice hockey team are headed back to court to determine whether the university violated Title IX guidelines by refusing to elevate the team to varsity status.

The Colgate case first was heard in 1990, when a federal judge ruled the university's refusal to grant the team varsity status was a violation of Title IX.

In 1993, however, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals declared the case moot because all of the plaintiffs had graduated or would soon.

Faith A. Seidenberg, the attorney for the original plaintiffs, immediately recruited new students to represent and, in February 1994, asked the U.S. District Court to again find discrimination. Colgate argued that the case should be dismissed.

District Court Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr. took more than two years to reach a decision, ruling in mid-June that the case would have to go to trial because basic facts, such as the level of student interest in women's hockey, were in dispute.

Since the first suit was filed, Colgate has hired a full-time coach for the team and allowed it to compete in a league against varsity-level teams.

The plaintiffs argued that since the team had been active at Colgate since 1979, a sufficient level of "interest and ability" to sustain women's hockey as a varsity sport had been established.

* * *

West Virginia University has received $2 million from the state to help construct a new indoor practice field -- a move that West Virginia officials believe will help the university comply with federal requirements to improve athletics opportunities for female students.

West Virginia's eight-page plan to improve opportunities for women proposes construction of a new multipurpose building, including an indoor practice field.

In reviewing West Virginia for certification, an NCAA peer-review team recommended that the university improve facilities for women's gymnastics and add women's soccer and softball. Those recommendations are included in West Virginia's plan.

Ed Pastilong, West Virginia athletics director, promotes the athletics department as being self-sufficient but is receptive to the $2 million in state funds to help West Virginia comply with Title IX requirements.

The new building will take about two years to complete and will serve women's and men's soccer, women's gymnastics, and football.

* * *

A New Jersey high school has reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Education to make girls' athletics events more equitable with those of boys.

The settlement, which affects only Shore Regional High School, requires that the band, cheerleaders and concessions stands be provided equally at girls' and boys' events. It also makes compensation to coaches more equitable.

The settlement was the result of a complaint filed last November by the school's field hockey coach, Nancy Williams, alleging the school was not complying with federal gender-equity requirements for the 11 sports in which girls compete.

Williams claimed the school violated Title IX requirements, which are more frequently associated with equality for women in college sports but apply across the board.

The court ordered that coaches' salaries at the school be made more equitable as a whole. Coaches of girls' sports at the school are paid about $25,000 less overall than coaches of boys' sports.

Many of the coaches individually make the same amount, but football coaches are paid more because of the length of the season. Also, the total amounts paid to boys' coaches and girls' coaches differ because girls do not compete in all sports.

Other reported parts of the settlement require Shore Regional to:

* Videotape girls' contests, as is done for boys;

* Continue to provide girls' teams with equal opportunity to use lighted playing and practice fields;

* Continue to provide the girls' field hockey team with quality uniforms, sticks and protective gloves; and

* Continue to ensure an appropriate coach-to-athlete ratio for the girls' hockey team comparable to other teams in the district's athletics conference.

The Office for Civil Rights said it would monitor the school's compliance.

Kim DeGraw-Coles, president of the Shore Conference of High Schools, which represents 43 public and parochial schools in Monmouth and Ocean counties in New Jersey, told The Associated Press she knew of no other school district in the state that had such requirements.

"I don't think this should be a male-female issue because all sports can't be linked," DeGraw-Coles said. "There is a different level of need to be provided. I would hope that we don't have a rash of complaints but that what becomes reasonable prevails."

--Compiled by Sally Huggins

Title IX Ticker is a monthly feature in The NCAA News. News and information regarding Title IX and gender-equity issues can be sent to The NCAA News, Attn.: Title IX Ticker, 6201 College Boulevard, Overland Park, Kansas 66211-2422.