Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

12-2025

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Ed. D.

Department

Educational Leadership, Evaluation and Organizational Development

Degree Program

Educational Leadership and Organizational Development, EDD

Committee Chair

Pratel, Regina

Committee Member

Powers, Deborah

Committee Member

Stevens, Doug

Committee Member

White, Rachel

Author's Keywords

Female coaches; gender bias in sports; coaching barriers; women in leadership; female coach inequity; ecological-intersectional-feminist model

Abstract

After the passage of Title IX, there has been an increase in the number of females participating in sports; however, the same cannot translate to women in coaching or leadership positions (Acosta & Carpenter, 2014; Hart et al., 1986; LaVoi & Baeth, 2018). The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of females who had served as head coaches in the high school setting with at least eight years of experience as a head coach. The NCAA (2022) reported in 2020 that female coaches accounted for 41.3% of female teams' head coaches, both intercollegiate and interscholastic, highlighting the gap in female representation. The feminist theory and LaVoi's Ecological-Intersectional Model provided a theoretical framework to answer the research questions of: What are the lived experiences of female high school head coaches with over eight years of experience? What barriers have these females encountered as head coaches in high school settings? What has contributed to their persistence in head coaching roles in high school settings? What specific type of support do female head coaches perceive as crucial for attracting and retaining more women to coaching in high school settings? Purposeful criterion sampling identified eight participants were identified, and data were collected through questionnaires, two semi-structured interviews, and a final member check of an interview-themed matrix. Data analysis was conducted following the phenomenological principles of Saldana (2021), van Manen (2016), Creswell and Poth (2018), and Moustakas (1994). Findings revealed themes related to the essentiality of mentorship and the limited access female coaches have to it. They provide insight into mentorship, the positive and negative experiences females have faced in the profession, and the barriers women encounter through the Ecological-Intersectional Mode layers. Participants also provided insight into the persistence factors that contributed to their longevity as well as strategies for attracting and retaining women to increase female representation in the coaching profession. These findings contribute to the limited research on female coaches in the high school setting, offering implications for educational organizations and leaders to create a more equitable environment for women.

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