None o f the coaches in these sports who held high status coaching positions reported that the payment which they received for coaching was sufficient to compensate them for the work which they undertook. Colleen, for instance, said although she received some payment for the sessions which she took, together with a contribution towards her expenses, it was going to cost her over £1,000 to go abroad as a coach to one team. She believed that this situation was because her governing body, was, she felt, inadequately funded by the Sports Council, so that there was no money to pay coaches, including her, for the work which they undertook. A similar situation was reported by one o f the gymnastics coaches where, although her club had recently agreed to make a contribution to her travelling expenses, she was not fully recompensed for her work for the British Amateur Gymnastics Association (BAGA). She explained:
G ill: Nationally there’s no financial assistance. As a zone coach we get a sum o f money to help cover the cost (we paid the children to travel down to Somerset last year). And to take ten kids and two coaches, that’s it all gone. Interviewer: So you’re not actually paid to take them down there?
G ill: Oh no! You do it for the love o f the sport.
Nina and Nora recounted similar circumstances. Indeed Nora considered it a part o f her remit to organise fund-raising for the team she coached.
Although the WCA paid its best coaches minimal levels o f pay, women working for the men’s governing body or a local authority development scheme were paid for their efforts. Claudia described how “ if you’re doing men or boys coaching, you get a lot more . . . ” , and Carla explained that if she were coaching boys on a local authority scheme she was
paid, whereas if she coached her club, she received no payment. Ironically then, the coaches working with the best women cricketers are financially worse o ff than those who coach on development schemes working with young, inexperienced male cricketers. Similarly, whilst coaching top level gymnasts left the coaches financially worse off, working for a local authority was, as far as finance was concerned, a more attractive proposition. What is interesting is the way that the women cricket coaches in this study appeared to accept the fact that the opportunities for financial reimbursement in the women’s game were so much poorer than in the men’s game. They seemed to believe that payment for coaching was linked to market forces and that because women’s cricket was a minority sport it did not deserve parity with coaching men’s cricket. They appeared to support the view that the greater popularity o f men’s cricket entitled coaches to enhanced opportunities for financial reward as coaches o f male cricketers.
Evidently, individuals who aspire to coach elite women performers need high disposable incomes because the costs o f coaching do not decrease as the status o f the role increases; rather they seem to increase. Not surprisingly then eight o f the ten coaches, working with top level performers had well paid jobs and no dependants. The exceptions were Claudia and G ill, neither o f whom was in paid employment, but who both had male partners in full-tim e paid employment as a school teacher and service engineer respectively, and whose earnings presumably subsidised their coaching activities.
6.6.2 Squash
Both squash coaches had started to coach in order to earn money to support their playing commitments, suggesting that the opportunities for earned income are greater for women in squash than they are for women coaches in the sports mentioned previously. In fact Sylvia was the only coach to describe her current employment status as “ (squash) coach” . Sonia explained that the opportunities for women to gain employment at a private club were less favourable than for men, because clubs typically hired a coach on the
understanding that “ he” would play for the men’s squash team in league matches. In contrast, few clubs were prepared to offer female players a financial incentive to represent them and hence female coaches were less likely to be hired than male coaches.
In keeping with the experiences o f the cricket, gymnastics and netball coaches, the financial rewards associated with coaching top level players as a national or regional coach were minimal. Sonia relayed her feelings o f frustration because there simply was not the money available to allow her to develop the junior area squad. Sylvia described a similar situation. She worked as a squash coach and manager o f a sports club and
explained that her earnings from this job were satisfactory, but that when she worked as a coach for the NGB she was not reimbursed fully for her work. She explained:
I ’m away from home an awful lot, all the training courses. Some o f the trips are three to four weeks long. It also includes attending all the meetings, selection, the Exec. .. Any publicity or anything that’s going on, I have to be there. I ’m in charge o f all the budgets, the uniforms. Its a very big
responsibility and basically that money is paid to me as loss o f earnings, so at the end o f the day you’re doing it for the honour, you are not doing it for the money. (Sylvia)
The experiences o f the women working for their NGB were similar to those o f the cricket coaches in that they were aware that there was considerably more money available to support the men’s game. Sylvia, like Claudia and Colleen, was aware o f the fact that the women’s association was unable to pay her more money, and she went on to contrast her involvement at the top level o f women’s squash with the men’s game:
I mean they [WSRA] do the best they can for me, they’re not trying to get me on the cheap, they just haven’t got the money. .. 1 mean when I do a squad for the national Under 19’s I get the venue, I get the girls to be put up at places, homes and I do everything on the cheap. The men, I went to a National Squad, they did an Under 12’s, I knew one boy on one o f them. £2,000 that cost. That was for sixteen Under 12 boys! They had five top coaches, stayed in a five star hotel, and here’s me, sort o f doing it on £100 and they’re doing it on £2000. So you can see what the problems are....and we’re the World Champions and they’re not! (Sylvia)
6.6.3 Swimming
The two swimming coaches were employed in full-time positions as swimming
development officers, which included some responsibility for coaching. It is difficult to comment on the significance o f paid employment for these two women’s involvement in coaching elite standard swimmers, because, unlike the other coaches who were
interviewed, neither coached elite level performers. Both coaches explained that their involvement at the top levels o f swimming was dependent upon them having swimmers in the national squads and, as they did not have any national standard swimmers, they had not been asked to become involved at this level. A t the time at which the interviews were conducted, no women coaches had been invited by the NGB to work with elite standard performers. As swimming coaches are often employed by local authorities as swimming development officers, this suggests that such coaches are probably reimbursed for their time and expenses as a coach. Since there were no women working with elite level
representative squads, it is not possible to comment on the levels of reimbursement received for working with such squads.