Gender Hiring Trends Of Athletic Directors and Head Coaches in California Two Year Colleges: A Comparison Of 1988, 1997, and 2008

While the number of women participating in sports has increased since Title IX, the number of women coaching women's sports has decreased. Before Title IX was implemented, the percentage of women coaching Division I sports was 90%, today that number is only 42.8% (Acosta & Carpenter, 2008). Most research investigating these trends has focused on four year colleges while little attention has been directed at women coaching in two-year colleges. This research project gathered the current numbers of head coaches of women's sports and athletic directors in 100 two-year colleges in the state of California. College websites were used to determine the gender of head coaches and athletic directors. Col1ected data was then sent by email to athletic directors and/or athletic department secretaries to verify their accuracy. The data was analyzed and compared to data collected by Rosas who examined hiring trends in California two-year colleges for the years 1988 and 1997 (Rosas, 1997). The 2008 data reveals that while the number of girls and women participating in sports has increased over the last ten years, the percentage of women in athletic director and head coaching positions has continued to decline. Currently in California two year colleges 40% of women's sports teams are coached by women, and 60% are coached by men, while 80% of the athletic director positions are held by men, and 20% are held by women. Findings are discussed in terms of trends in different athletic programs with the California community college system, and in particular the Bay Valley and Big Conferences of Northern California.