College Sports Business News - The Publication for College Sports Administrators

Just a few days ago, the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators (NACWAA) met in Pittsburgh, Pa. for its annual convention.  Since the time of its founding in 1979 to the present, NACWAA has sought to advance the success of women administrators working in intercollegiate athletics and to provide support to women who aspire to careers as athletics administrators.

While the number of women working in college sport is higher today than ever before, it is clear that the profession is gender integrated in women’s athletics but not so in men’s athletics.  According to researchers Vivian Acosta and Linda Carpenter, roughly 57% of the head coaching ranks of women’s teams are comprised of men with the remaining 43% being women.  Head coaches of men’s teams at the college level are nearly all male, with just two percent being women.  When viewed in its entirety, 20% of the head coaching universe is populated by women.  And within athletics administration, women make up less than 20% of athletic directors nationwide.

In a presentation on the steps women can take to position themselves as athletics directors or conference commissioners, Betsy Alden, a former director of athletics and founder of Alden & Associates, Inc., an executive search and consulting firm, observed that there is a perception that the athletic community is slower than the rest of higher education in hiring women.   Alden identified four reasons why progress has been stalled in terms of women being hired into significant leadership positions within intercollegiate athletics programs and conferences, including:

• a tendency on the part of those hiring to underestimate the potential of women to lead;
• institutional apathy in creating diverse hiring pools;
• the federated nature of the collegiate athletics structure; and
• the risk aversive nature of higher education. 

Alden cautioned that women needed to be conscious of dynamics that could sideline them, some of which they may have little control over and some that they can control.  For example, women may be thought of more often to deal with “student affairs” or “student welfare” issues within athletics departments, responsibilities that while important typically do not lead to promotion.  Some sense of the dimension of this phenomenon can be seen in data from the 2009-2010 NCAA Race and Gender Demographics Report,   where females are far more likely to be working as academic advisors and counselors (60% female to 40% male)  and as life skills coordinators (73% female to 27% male).  Beyond the scope of their job titles, women may also have to be more selective in the committee appointments they accept (serving on the Capital Campaign Committee, for example, as compared to the Parking Committee).

For anyone aspiring to a substantive career in athletics administration, Alden recommended gaining experience in what she calls the five “cornerstones” – finances (creating, managing, and ending budgets); personnel and staff supervision (direct reports with responsibility for head coaches and support staff); fundraising; facilities management; and strategic planning.

The template mapped out by Alden was brought to life in the presentation by two NCAA Division I female athletics directors – Lynn Hickey from the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and Cheryl Levick from Georgia State University.  These women related the challenges and rewards associated with the development of football programs at their institutions, dealing with every facet of the process including the feasibility study phase, financing and marketing plans, conference and television negotiations, coach selection and staff hiring, communication within campus and external constituencies, gender equity, first game celebrations, and, of course, the growth of the marching band and creation of the fight song.

When discussing the importance of having women in these key decision making roles within athletics programs, both Hickey and Levick commented on the unique perspectives that women bring to the table.  They both felt that they were assets to recruiting, mentioning that they could connect with players and their families in a way that inspired trust.  As Levick put it, “I can recruit anyone anywhere” while the coaching staff has confidence that she can “sell the dream and deliver”.

While these women have proven track records and been successful in navigating the college sport system, recent research affirms that barriers in perceptions that undermine the legitimacy of viable female candidates continue to exist.  In a study by Laura Burton, Heidi Grappendorf, and Angela Henderson recently published in the Journal of Sport Management, athletics administrators asked to assess the likelihood of success of similarly situated female and male candidates in terms of education, career achievement, and recommendations from others believed male candidates to be much more likely to be selected for the position of athletic director.

This issue of “fit” within an athletics program has been a difficult barrier to overcome but is also one that seems to have been internalized by women themselves.  As Andi Seger, Senior Associate with Alden & Associates, pointed out, women working in athletics often set the bar too high when assessing whether they should apply for jobs.  According to Seger, men give themselves more opportunities because they apply more frequently.  While women typically take job descriptions literally, disqualifying themselves because they do not meet 100% of the advertised list of qualifications and responsibilities, men are likely to apply if they meet 50% of what is in the job description.

There is no doubt that women in athletics administration traverse a gender tightrope that can make them feel as if it is nearly impossible to gain solid footing.  The path is probably wider and a bit more stable than it appears.  From the assembled wisdom at NACWAA, several notable suggestions arose as to how women can proactively persist in working toward the goal of a promotion or to get hired as an athletics director or commissioner.  First, assess your own profile in an evenhanded and accurate way to determine areas to address in your professional development and to be creative in addressing those.  Even when it appears that you will be denied the opportunity to work with budgets or to fundraise within your own department, extend your gaze outward to other areas of your college or university or community.  If all avenues within your department are blocked, become the treasurer of a local league or get involved with institutional advancement in other areas of the university.  Second, as Cheryl Levick did, plan for that next move.  Anticipating that she might need to know more about football later in her career, she took advantage of her situation while working at Stanford and sat in on spring football sessions with famed coach, Bill Walsh.  That was part of her strategy to “know things better than other people think you do.”  Third, find someone who knows the system who can serve as a mentor.  And fourth, apply, apply, apply! 

References

Acosta, V., & Carpenter, L.  (2011).  Women in intercollegiate athletics:  A longitudinal national study Thirty three year update.  http://www.acostacarpenter.org/

Burton, L., Grappendorf, H., & Henderson, A.  (2011, February).  Perceptions of gender in athletic administration:  Utilizing role congruity to examine (potential) prejudice against women. Journal of Sport Management 25, 36-45. 

Irick, E.  (2011).  2009-2010 NCAA Race and Gender Demographics. 

 http://www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads/2010RaceGenderMember.pdf

#  #  #

Dr. Ellen Staurowsky is Professor, Sport Management at Drexel University.  Dr. Staurowsky is internationally recognized as an expert on social justice issues in sport which include gender equity and Title IX, pay equity and equal employment opportunity, the exploitation of athletes, the faculty role in reforming college sport, representation of women in sport media, and the misappropriation of American Indian imagery in sport.  She is co-author of the book, College Athletes for Hire:  The Evolution and Legacy of the NCAA Amateur Myth and is currently working on her second book entitled Women in Sport: From Liberation to Celebration. In addition to publications in scholarly journals such as the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, Journal of Sport and Social Issues, Sociology of Sport Journal, Quest, Journal of Sport Management, the International Journal of Sport Sociology, the Marquette Sports Law Review, the Journal of Legal Aspects of Sport, and the International Journal of Sport History, her critiques and analyses on a variety of issues have appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal, The NCAA News, The New York Times, Athletic Management Magazine, and News From Indian Country.  Dr. Staurowsky has received numerous honors over the years.  Temple University recognized Dr. Staurowsky with a Young Alumna Achievement Award in 1998 and in 2005 she was presented with an Excellence in Professional Performance Award.  She has been named to Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers on numerous occasions and she is a recipient of a Faculty Appreciation Award from students at Ithaca College.  In 2002, she received the Ithaca College Faculty Award for Excellence in Scholarship.  In 2005, Dr. Staurowsky received the Ithaca College Office of Multicultural Affairs Appreciation Award and the IC Feminists Woman of Achievement Award in 2006.  In December of 2008, she was named the first recipient of the National Residence Hall Honorary (NHRR – Ithaca) Faculty Member of the Month.  Recognized with the Darlene Kluka Women’s Sports Foundation’s Research Award in 2008, Dr. Staurowsky was also honored that same year with a Presidential Award from the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport.   In 2009, Dr. Staurowsky received the Ithaca College Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching.  Dr. Staurowsky is frequently sought after for interviews to discuss contemporary sport issues.  She has served as president of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport and the AAHPERD Research Consortium.  She is an executive board member of the College Sport Research Institute at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the NCAA Scholarly Colloquium, where she also serves as secretary-treasurer.  She has made several appearances on ESPN Outside the Lines, ESPN Classic, ESPN Cold Pizza, and Public Broadcasting’s Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.  Dr. Staurowsky served as a director of athletics at the college level for nine years before moving to Ithaca College, and then on to Drexel. Previous to that was a college coach in the sports of field hockey, men’s soccer, and women’s lacrosse. Dr. Staurowsky can be reached at  ejs95@drexel.edu