About the Women Coaches Symposium

Women Coaches Symposium

 

The Women Coaches Symposium (WCS), established in 2014, provides high-quality educational programming and professional development for women coaches. This full-day women-focused event serves as an avenue for networking and provides space to build community among women coaches. Women coaches of all sports and all levels are welcome. The WCS is a LGBTQI2S+ inclusive, safe space. While the WCS is a women-focused event, we welcome male allies who support women.

The scope, size, and value of the event, the quality of our speakers—all of whom are women—the relevancy of topics, the high level of our partnerships, and especially the women-centered focus distinguishes the WCS from other events in the coaching education landscape. To our knowledge, it is the largest event of its kind in the United States and perhaps the world.

WCS Attendees

We developed the WCS to address, and hopefully reverse, the historic decline and current stagnation of the percent of women coaching girls and women. Did you know that in 1972, 90% of collegiate women were coached by women? Today that figure is only ~43%, a statistic that has remained stagnant for the last decade. The percentage of women coaches at the high school, club and youth levels is even lower. We believe—and data supports—that same-sex role models are important. Women coaches are valuable, competent, passionate, caring role models. Through our research, education, outreach and advocacy, the WCS is making a difference in and through sport by supporting women coaches and in turn the many athletes and communities they impact.

The purpose of the Women Coaches Symposium is: 

  • to provide high quality educational programming
  • to provide an avenue for networking for women in the coaching profession
  • to build community among female coaches
  • to recruit, retain and support women in the coaching profession

The WCS is a collaboration between the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, WeCOACH, and the University of Minnesota Athletics.

 

co sponsor

   

Support the WCS

You can support the WCS by contributing to the Women in Sport Leadership Fund and the Jean K. Freeman Endowment. Click here to make a donation.