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Women's activists had to smile last March and April, when each of the teams that reached the NCAA women's basketball Final Four -- and 13 of the 16 teams in regional semifinals before that -- were coached by women.
A key NCAA committee wonders why the demographics elsewhere in college sports tend to differ.
The Committee on Women's Athletics, wrapping up two days of meetings in Indianapolis on Tuesday, is weighing measures it hopes will illuminate a lag in the overall numbers of female college coaches and administrators. A possibility: drawing up a women's hiring report card similar to one on minority hiring released annually by the Black Coaches Association.
According to research by Brooklyn College professors Linda Carpenter and Vivian Acosta, 42% of NCAA women's teams (including 44% in Division I) are coached by women and less than a fifth of athletics directors who oversee women's programs are female.
Division I women's basketball, in which 69% of the 300-plus head coaches are female, stands as an exception. The proportion in DivisionII basketball dips to 47%.
A hiring report card, if instituted, probably would start in basketball "because that's the most visible, most high-profile women's sport at the college level, and that's where we think the most attention could be drawn," said women's committee chair Darlene Bailey of Missouri State. "But we also think it's very valuable to do it in other women's sports ... volleyball, softball, soccer, the team sports."
Her panel will submit recommendations to the NCAA's Championships/Competition Cabinet, which meets this month but might not address the issue until later.
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