When women hit the grass ceiling of coaching

While grassroots sport for women athletes is thriving, once the game becomes professional they seem to be on a conveyor belt to nowhere.

There's a subject Alice Soper wants to stop writing about.

It's the sidelining of women when it comes to rugby coaching.

But she can't, as long as the problem still exists.

"So often we get caught up in the good news," she says.

"There's like a toxic positivity that's attached to a lot of women's sport stuff. I would love to be here just talking about how awesome stuff is because I love this game so much, and so many parts of it are [awesome].

"But the thing is, if our structures aren't supporting it to be as awesome as it is, I'm going to keep saying [this]."

She calls the blockage that stops women progressing to a top coaching job the "grass ceiling".

Soper says women at junior levels get frequent offers to do their level one coaching certificate, which takes about one evening. It's "very basic," she says. "It's an overview of what the game of rugby is. Chances are if you've played for a minute you've probably got that handle on it.

"It's the level two where you actually have to start to put those principles of play into practice.

"And then level three is where you start to look at some of the more high performance aspects of it and it's incredibly tough to get on a level three course."

Soper has lost count of the number of times she's been offered a re-do of the first level, in what she describes as a box-ticking exercise by NZ Rugby.

"We don't need more juniors getting involved in level ones. I've been offered that course at least once a season for the past five years. Please do not insult my intelligence.

"The mind boggles as to what the actual plan is here - because I don't see one," she says. "I can not get beyond where I already am, unless I'm willing to pay thousands of dollars.

"We're going backwards."

Soper says as the women's game becomes more professional, it becomes more attractive for men to further their careers.

"They get to have the double-dip. They can develop themselves either within the women's game or the men's game. Whereas women are still fighting to be given respect within their own part of the game.

"We are still putting more weight on experiences within men's games."

The founding editor of Newsroom's LockerRoom, Suzanne McFadden, runs The Detail through a long list of top women's teams led by men... the White Ferns, Black Ferns, Football Ferns, Kiwi Ferns, Black Sticks, our top cyclists, rowers and Olympic kayak champions.

Only 11 percent of New Zealand coaches of Paris Olympics or paralympics this year were women.

"This is the problem. There's been a shift in women in leadership in sport in New Zealand, but not a shift in women in coaching."

McFadden says elite female athletes are very much used to being coached by men, and they have a part to play in the appointment of coaches. After all, a lot of them, when their playing days are over, will choose to be coaches.

At the moment, that's not a path that leads very far.

"I think they have a responsibility in changing the situation too."

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