Improving Women’s Experiences of Mentorship in Canadian Coaching

View the research here: Improving Women’s Experiences of Mentorship in Canadian Coaching

Research demonstrates that women coaches can face structural-level systemic biases and barriers that hinder their growth and affect their coaching experiences.

Women coaches continue to be underrepresented from club to national level sport coaching roles in Canada. One avenue to help women coaches overcome barriers to advancement in coaching is through mentorship. Mentorship refers to a process where a coach with knowledge and experience (i.e., mentor) acts as a supportive role model and guides another coach (i.e., mentee) to contribute to that person’s development. It is considered as one of the best ways to develop as a coach.

Mentoring programs for women coaches (e.g., The Female Coach Mentorship Program) have been implemented to create mentoring relationships, provide formalized support to matches, and enhance developmental opportunities for women from marginalized groups (e.g., racialized women coaches). However, more work is required to underscore women coaches’ experiences of mentorship including their learnings, experiences, and ways to support their professional and personal development. To date, there is a lack of understanding on the specific

processes of mentorship that are effective, the structure and approach of women coach mentoring, and how to retain women coaches using mentorship-based approaches.

The purpose of this research project was to explore sport stakeholders’ experiences in two Canadian women in coaching mentorship programs. The study sought to understand participants’ experience in two national women coach mentorship programs and explore how these programs can contribute to the longer-term outcomes for women in coaching, including advancement and retention.