Exploring the experiences of women hockey coaches in grassroots hockey: An investigation on the challenges and barriers within the hockey coaching community in Canada


Lauren Dormer, University of Alberta

Hockey is a key component of Canadian culture, yet it still reflects hypermasculine ideologies throughout all levels of participation. It has become abundantly clear that the toxic culture of hockey is intrinsically formed upon systematic gender inequity and inequality. The power imbalance within the sport is found amongst the many levels of participation including playing, coaching, officiating, spectating, or administrative roles. This paper addresses the impacts of gender-based inequity for women hockey coaches, an area of the sport where they are widely underrepresented. As other sport organizations continue to claim that they are taking steps to move forward with gender inclusivity initiatives and campaigns, certain gaps within the discourse are widespread. Gender inclusivity within sport has to include a variety of areas of participation, which make it even that more difficult to comprehend. Increased numbers of women and girls in sport is often described through player participation statistics, leaving out a large portion of other areas in which women and girls are underrepresented. This creates a large gap within both the academic literature and the broader sporting community. Women’s advancement in masculine dominated labour markets has increased over the last few decades, yet women still remain underrepresented in positions of leadership. Positions of power in hockey (ex. head coach positions, assistant coach positions) reflect this trend, as it is still dominated by white heterosexual men. Grassroots hockey is typically the start to any hockey-coaching career and there is currently no data or literature on women coaching at the grassroots hockey level, leaving women - especially women of colour - invisible within this particular labour market. The paper will investigate the hockey coaching culture as experienced by women through an intersectional approach. Using interview data from 30 women coaches in Canada, this paper focuses on both the experiences of women in coaching. The data collection is still on going at this time. This paper highlights the challenges and barriers to women in coaching by focusing on the general coaching experience, coach recruitment experiences, coach retention, and coach mobility within the sport. I argue that although there are increased numbers of women participating in hockey and increased opportunities for women in hockey (ex. the Profession Women’s Hockey League), not all hockey spaces are still not safe for women to participate in. Highlighting the experiences of women in hockey coaching, the aim of this study is to include women voices in hockey and coach scholarship, while also serving as a medium to inform sport organizational policies and practices as they relate to gender equity policies and practices. [Note: This is paper is part of my thesis dissertation (in progress)“Women, Race, and Coaching: An Intersectional Investigation of Problematic Coaching Culture in Grassroots Hockey”].

This paper will be presented at the following session: