Gender and Racial Bias Workplace Experiences of Women Coaches of Color within Intercollegiate Athletics

Women’s participation in intercollegiate sports grew dramatically after the passage of Title IX in 1972. Yet, as of 2024, women are underrepresented and continue to face barriers in accessing leadership positions in sport—especially Women of Color. According to the Women in College Coaching Report Card, BIPOC women occupy 8.2% of all NCAA Division I head coaching positions for women’s sports. For decades, researchers have examined the experiences, barriers, and supports that women coaches face within intercollegiate sports. Workplace gender bias, manifested through gender stereotypes, unequal pay, and discrimination, are noted barriers to women coaches’ success, yet researchers have yet to fully interrogate the racialized dimension of power systems within intercollegiate sports. The experiences of BIPOC women coaches, despite facing greater intersectional, racialized, and gendered oppressions within white, heterosexist sport systems, are under-theorized and under-examined. Existing research that includes BIPOC coaches is primarily qualitative and limited to participant samples in specific sports or racial groups (i.e. Black women intercollegiate basketball coaches). Employing intersectionality and the theory of racialized organizations, we utilized a quantitative approach to understand the experiences of BIPOC women coaches within intercollegiate sport, workplace satisfaction, job turnover intention, and racial and gender bias. Study participants (n = ~250) were recruited from coach networks and via social media to complete an online survey, which included the Gender Bias for Women Leaders scale and the Workplace Bias Scale Results illuminate BIPOC women coaches’ experiences from a wide variety of sports and racial/ethnic groups, as well as provide tangible recommendations for intercollegiate athletic departments to better support BIPOC women coaches.