Abstract Book of the 4th World Conference on Gender Equality
Year: 2026
[PDF]
Rethinking Coaching Education: Addressing Gender Inequities in Training, Performance, and Athlete Development
Donna NU
ABSTRACT:
Much of what is known about physical training, performance, and recovery is grounded in male normative values, shaping coaching philosophies and practices in ways that often fail to meet the needs of female athletes (Anderson, 2023). Despite meaningful advances in sport science, recent reviews show that females accounted for only 34% of participants in over 5,000 studies between 2014–2022, and a mere 6% of these studies focused exclusively on women (Deldicque, 2022). This exclusion creates systemic issues as training and recovery standards—developed primarily from male data—are applied to female athletes, whose physiological responses differ significantly due to sex-specific factors such as hormonal fluctuations and bone density.
Research from the Women’s Sports Foundation (2004, 2019, 2020) underscores how inadequate or misinformed coaching contributes to inequities, including heightened rates of preventable injuries such as ACL tears. Both male and female coaches report low confidence and insufficient preparation in addressing gender-specific health needs (Findlay, 2018). Early studies from the 1980s further entrenched stereotypes by framing female athletes as motivated mainly by fun and friendship, reinforcing biased perceptions that persist in coaching education today.
This presentation highlights the urgent need for coach education that integrates sex- and gender-specific evidence, challenges outdated stereotypes, and centers the lived experiences of female athletes. Such reform is essential for reducing injury risk, improving health outcomes, and fostering equitable high-performance sport.
Keywords: Sport Coaching, Physiology, Female, Gender, Sports, Physical Activity