Where Have All the Women Coaches Gone? – Head of the Schuylkill program

Hidden within the pages of the Head of the Schuylkill program, an article’s title cries out, pointedly, “Where Have All The Women Coaches Gone?” The author, Maura Kennedy, a rower herself, set out to write a story highlighting the female head coaches of local rowing programs. Instead, she found a dearth of them. “Out of Philadelphia’s seven largest schools with Division 1 rowing programs, only three of the top collegiate women’s rowing programs have women head coaches (Temple University, Villanova University, and Drexel University). Arguably the oldest rowing community in the United States and a leader in the rowing industry, Boathouse Row and university programs in the Philadelphia area still struggle to break the collegiate coaching glass ceiling and make a historical difference in gender equity,” Kennedy reports. She goes on to carefully catalog this summer’s “exodus” of women coaches from DI and to explore the variety of factors at play nationally resulting in a mere 48.7% of head coaches for DI women’s rowing teams being women. This is not just a pity party, though, as Kennedy concludes the piece with a thorough list of proposed solutions and actionable steps.