Over at the USA Today, Christine Brennan laments that of the five candidates for the job of U.S. women’s soccer coach, three candidates are men, while only two are women. Brennan is also concerned at the declining percentage of female coaches on intercollegiate women’s teams. She suspects foul play.
But is it really so hard to imagine that, by and large, there is a larger pool of men who are coaches than women? Or that more men than would choose not just a career in sports, but one that places heavy demands on families through an extensive travel schedule? I don’t think so.
To blame the disparity on discriminatory hiring practices doesn’t hold water. In order to believe that line of thinking, you must accept that college administrators would support and foster women’s athletics and then turn around and practice sex discrimination against their coaches. It simply doesn’t add up.
Equal opportunity doesn’t always result in equal results, and that’s fine. Everything in life doesn’t have to be 50/50. As long as the best coach is getting the job, teams should be happy, regardless of whether that coach is a man or a woman.