Gender and diversity responsive coaching: Building Capacity Through Relational, Feminist-Informed, Intersectional, Transdisciplinary, and E/Affective Coach Development

Attempts towards achieving gender equality are widely considered to be ‘wicked’ problems and continue to be a global priority in line with other United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In sport, longstanding gender inequities are reproduced and perpetuated through problematic heteropatriarchal, ableist, and colonial sporting structures and cultures. These negatively impact women and girls and gender expansive people, as well as their access to quality sporting experiences across different pathways. As key actors within sporting ecosystems, sport coaches have a critical role to play in terms of supporting the development of inclusive, ethical, and equitable sporting environments and, more broadly, in the mainstreaming of quality sporting experiences for all. Therefore, the development of a gender and diversity-sensitive, -responsive, and -transformative coaching workforce should be a critical concern. This position paper builds on previous empirical work which has identified gaps in coaching knowledge alongside a range of problematic understandings and assumptions which currently shape coaches’ ‘gender-responsive’ coaching practices. It does so by identifying challenges and ways forward for enhanced coach learning and development strategies targeting the development of a more gender and diversity-responsive coaching workforce.