Nike’s approach to solving the biggest problem for girls in sports

In recent decades, data from sports researchers revealed an encouraging trend: young girls were participating in sports in greater numbers. But the research also uncovered a big missed opportunity. Girls drop out of sports at “alarming rates,” specifically when they hit puberty.

There is one obvious solution that sports retail giant Nike CEO John Donahoe, and many others, think can make a big difference: more female coaches.

In the historically male-dominated world of sports, girls and women have always had to fight for their right to compete and to be viewed as competitive athletes. The sexism that has prevented girls from competing in sports has also prevented women from becoming youth coaches.

“I think league administrators are kind of trained to look for dads to coach and think more often the dads are going to be the ones to step up and do it. I think sometimes they may not even be trying to recruit females,” said Mary Fry, professor and director of the University of Kansas Sport & Exercise Psychology Lab.

Nearly 75% of youth head coaches are men, according to Aspen Institute’s Project Play. Even when women are offered the opportunity to coach, they are fearful that they’re not good enough to take on such a position because of the sexist stereotypes society often promotes.

When Jen Welter, the first-ever female NFL coach and a two-time gold medalist in Olympic football, was offered the opportunity to coach football for the first time, she recalled instinctively thinking “girls don’t do that.”

“When you don’t see it, it’s really hard to say, ‘You know what, I can do that,'” Welter said.

“Most young people rarely, if ever, get the opportunity to be coached by a woman. This is a miss for all,” said Vanessa Garcia-Brito, Nike vice president, and chief social and community impact officer. “To get girls active and invite them into a lifetime of sport, they have to see it to believe it – and that starts with more female coaches.”

In March, Nike launched Coaching HER in a partnership with the University of Minnesota’s Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport. The digital coaching resource is designed to help coaches of all genders improve their understanding of gendered bias and discrimination in sports.

Female coaches are not just important in terms of giving young girls a positive role model – they also offer a safe space to discuss and process the difficulties that can come with a young woman’s changing body and mind. Even for girls who grew up loving sports, puberty shifts girls’ relationship with sports and very often results in them disengaging with physical activity.

The data related to this critical period in a girl’s life is clear. One in three girls participate in a sport from age 6-12, according to the Aspen Institute. But nearly one in two girls will quit sports during puberty, according to menstrual product manufacturer…