Women's participation and scholarship dollars show slow but steady gains on the gender-equity front, while salaries for the coaches of women's teams continue to lag behind those of men's teams, according to the recently released 1999-00 NCAA Gender-Equity Study.

The biannual report shows that in Division I overall, women's athletics participation crept to 41 percent from 40 percent in the 1997-98 study. The study also showed incremental gains in scholarship dollars for women, from 41 percent to 43 percent of the scholarship funds in Division I overall.

Significant gaps remain between women's and men's coaches' salaries, however. According to the study, assistant coaches of Division I-A men's teams receive 74 percent of the dollars spent on assistant coaches and 62 percent of the funds spent on head coaches.

Operating expenses have remained largely unchanged, with some divisions reporting a slight increase in the percentage allotted to women's sports and Division II reporting a 4 percent decrease.

"Overall, the progress is slow but steady in some areas and stagnant in others," said Rosie Stallman, NCAA director of education outreach, "but the study is important because it can help athletics administrators see where the challenges are and develop a gender-equity plan to address some of those areas. By doing the study, the NCAA can provide information and groundwork for progress, but the actual planning and numbers for each institution are in the hands of those administrators on campus.

"We should commend those institutions that have gender-equity plans and are working on their goals. Those are the institutions that can serve as models for others."

The Gender-Equity Study provides summary information concerning personnel, revenues, expenses and other comparative variables of men's and women's intercollegiate athletics programs at NCAA member institutions for the 1999-00 fiscal year. This report is the result of a survey conducted during the fall of 2000. Similar studies have been conducted by the NCAA since 1991, with resulting reports published in 1991-92, 1995-96 and 1997-98.

Participation and scholarships

The survey reports out the average number of student-athlete participants at each institution and also the proportion of athletes by gender. Since the 1991-92 study, most divisions and subdivisions have reported a 10 percent gain in women's participation, though it has come in small increments over the years.

In Division I overall, women's participation stands at 41 percent, with an average of 163 student-athletes per institution. That figure is up 10 percent from the first study in 1991-92.

This year's report also showed that in Division I overall, the average number of male participants decreased, from 241 in the last study to 233. In Division I-A, men's participation numbers decreased from 310 to 296, while the female participation numbers remained the same. Women's participation in I-A proportionally increased by one percent, from 38 percent in the previous study to 39 percent in this study. Again, that represents an overall gain of 10 percent since the 1991-92 study.

Men's and women's participation both increased in Division I-AA, which reported an average of eight more male participants per institution and 14 more female participants per institution, bringing the proportional numbers to 60 percent for the men and 40 percent from the women. The previous study had reported male participation at 62 percent and female participation at 38 percent, while the 1991-92 study reported 70 percent male participation and 30 percent female participation.

In Division I-AAA, which experienced a large loss in male participants from 1992 to 1996, the average number of male student-athletes rebounded by 11 per institution in 1998 and decreased by four in 2000. Females now comprose 48 percent of the participants at this level, up from 47 percent in the last study and 36 percent in the 1991-92 study.

The 1-percent shift continued in Division II, which reported an average of 38 percent for female participation, up one percent from the last study and up from 32 percent in the 1991-92 study.

In Division III, women's participation decreased by an average of nine student-athletes per institution. Men's participation also decreased by an average of 15 student-athletes per institution, the same number they had increased by in the previous report. Because male and female participation decreased at the same rate, the proportion of female student-athletes remained at 40 percent, where it had been for the previous study, up from the 35 percent reported in the 1991-92 study.

In terms of women's team sponsorship, which can be an indicator of the potential for future participants, Division I overall saw gains in women's soccer, up from 182 teams reported in the previous study to 244 teams; women's lacrosse, up to 63 teams from 46; and women's ice hockey, up from 6 teams to 16. (Many more ice hockey teams have been added since then that will appear on the next report.) Also, rowing sponsorship went from 48 reported in the previous study to 73, while water polo went from 13 reported to 21 reported in this study.

"As institutions add more women's teams, we should see the number of female participants increase," Stallman said. "I'm surprised, with the increase of interest in women's sports over the last 10 years, that the participation numbers aren't higher than they are. Now that the groundwork is in place and many of these sports -- such as ice hockey and water polo -- are championships for women, we may see changes in participation over the next few years."

When it comes to scholarship dollars, there was an average of a 2 percent increase overall in money awarded to female student-athletes. Interestingly, the participation numbers in Division I-A have not kept up with the scholarship dollars. Division I-A reported that 40 percent of its scholarship dollars go to female student-athletes, up from 38 percent in the previous study and from 28 percent in the 1991-92 study.

Division I-AAA remains the only subdivision or division that averages more scholarship money for women, with female student-athletes receiving an average of 52 percent of the funds.

Coaching salaries

The gap in coaching salaries is most clearly seen in Division I-A assistant coaches, where the coaches of men's teams receive 74 percent of the dollars and the coaches of women's teams receive 26 percent. That's a one percent increase from the previous study, in which the women's teams received 25 percent, and a 10 percent increase from the 1991-92 study.

Though the funding in Division I-A for assistant coaches of women's teams has risen from the $118,897 reported in 1991-92 to the overall average sum of $374,500, the average amount spent on assistant coaches for men's teams has increased in that same period from $624,312 to $1,063,900, resulting in the 74-26 ratio.

Even in Division III, which it could be argued would likely have fewer assistant coaches for such sports as football, men's teams receive 69 percent of the funds used for assistant coaches, down one point from the 70 percent reported in the last study, and women's teams receive 31 percent. Again, Division I-AAA reports the smallest gap, with the coaches of men's teams receiving 55 percent of the funds and the coaches of women's teams receiving 45 percent.

The proportion for head coaches' salaries remained unchanged in Division I-A, with 62 percent of the funds devoted to the coaches of men's teams and 38 percent to women's teams. That's only a four-point shift from 1991-92, when 66 percent of the funds went to men's teams and 34 percent to women's teams.

"When you raise the level of pay for a coaching position that's underfunded, you raise the level of experience you bring to the student-athlete," Stallman said.

Operating, recruiting expenses

In both operating and recruiting expenses, women gained slightly, though they lost ground in Division II operating expenses. In Division I-A, men receive an average of 67 percent of the operating expenses and 71 percent of the recruiting expenses, down from 69 and 72 percent from the previous study.

Recruiting also continues to be an area where women's teams lag behind. In 1991-92, Division I-A institutions spent 84 percent of their recruiting dollars on men's teams. Though 71 percent of the recruiting dollars were reportedly spent on men's teams in this most recent report, that remains a significant difference.

Division I-AAA and Division III reported the largest proportional gains for women's recruiting, with I-AAA increasing from 39 percent to 45 percent and Division III increasing from 31 percent to 35 percent.

This year's study also showed that institutions in Division II increased the proportion of money spent on men's operating expenses to 66 percent, up from 62 percent in the previous study.

When it comes to operating expenses in Division I-A, women have gained more than half a million dollars since 1991-92, but the men's expenses also increased by more than a half million. The study in 1991-92 showed that an average of $1,049,020 was devoted to men's operating expenses and $262,570 to women's operating expenses. The most current study shows that women's operating expenses have risen to an average of $769,400, while men's expenses have risen to $1,583,000.

Division III reported a 1 percent increase in funds devoted to women's operating expenses, from 40 percent in the previous study to 41 percent, while Division I-AAA reported a 2 percent gain, up to 45 percent.

Hard copies of the 1999-00 NCAA Gender-Equity study should arrive at all NCAA member institutions by the end of the month. It also is available online at www.ncaa.org/library/research.html#gender_equity.