Takes a long time to get the right experience for a management job...possibly one day, but 10 years...no. A woman succeeding in a mainly male arena has to be much better than a man to even get the job. If a woman got such a job she wouldn't be average, she would be top quality. A related discussion is whether you need to be a top player to manage a club...I think not necessarily, though you have to try harder to get the players respect in the first place.
I'm amazed that this debate hasn't come up before but perhaps even more shocked that most people contributingg to this thread can't envisage a female manager within the next ten years. The name of Hope Powell has been banded about here and I cannot see one good reason why she could not be given a crack with managing a professional team. The barriers are not too difficult to overcome. I think that the mentality in the changing room would have to change and more educated players with perhaps some degree of awareness of management theory would be required. There will always be the kind of player who is a Neanderthal who won't accept this but it the requisite maagement skills are apparent, I think most educated and sensible players would accept a female manager. Fans represent the next stumbling block and once the first few female have been appointed, the shock will have worn off and they will find female managers as acceptable as men. I don't think that it could be argued by fansthat men are better at the job when so many of them often seem to be calling for the head of their team's manager! What I do think is interesting is the actual role of the manager. Would the successful candidate just deal with coaching and how might she be accepted if she has not played football at a high level. This is something which could not be argued in the case of Hope Powell. I also believe that women would introduce a more professional approach to management which would be a marked improvement to the more agricultural styles practiced by many current managers. Bascially, I can see a good female coach doing as well as some of her male counterparts. In conclusion, I don't feel that a Premiership Club is likely to take this risk but I can definately see if happening in the non-leagues and this would precipitate women managing in the lower three tiers. Given the number of woman who have run successful businesses, I think those believing this will never happen will be surprised and surprised within the next ten yearss - if indeed that long! Don't think Margaret Thatcher is a good comparison though having lived through her tenure.
My posting made no reference to how well she did the job although I have to say I agree with you. However how many crap men have we had managing football clubs. We could start the list with some of the disasters who have managed our club.
i cant see it personal myself i don't think many pros can would be able to get there head around it for some reason they have proably been brought up there whole carears with male coaches so we need to start introudicing more female coaches at grass root levels realy for it to it became a success but it would be intresting to see a female manger as they will propaly bring a different type of managment. very intresting topic though, keep my eye on this thread
I personally would quite like to see female managers in the Football League and Premier League. One's gender does not affect their ability to be a good manager, just like race doesn't either (and I'd quite like to more black and Asian managers too, as well as Asian players). I'm all for female referees and linesmen too. I don't think I've been at a game where there's been a female linesman, but I'd quite like to maybe. I also very much believe women's football in general should get more coverage. The beginning of the WSL last season had a bit of coverage but there's been barely any this year I think.
I agree with most of what you have said, but you are underestimating the old boys network at the FA and the non-risk takers in charge of the Premiership - the financial risk for most of them is too great (which is one reason so many youngsters have not got a look in too). You say that the attitude and mentality of the players will change, but there are too many spoilt players in a still very chauvinistic/homophobic environment, just look at the women they go for and what they expect of them, it will need a big change in their perceivence of the opposite sex. When everyone goes on about Hope Powell, I sometimes think that actually she is not the greater coach, her tactics and substitutions baffle me at times, however that is not to say she has been a great role model. With the women's game becoming professional it is likely that retiring pros will get involved in coaching which should lead to more female coaches, even if it is only in the women's league to start with.
The crap ones don't seem to have much trouble. Someone needs to find out why crap black managers get jobs while the good ones don't.
Saw the programme...couldn't understand what all the fuss is about....but kept watching because Gabby Logan is very tasty and does have nice teeth
After watching that programme last night I now realise just how big a fool Andy Gray is. When he comes on Talk Sport I still immediately tune in to Women's Hour on Radio 4. It is a form of penance for the sins of others and boy do I suffer. I am a real martyr. It would be interesting to know the audience figures for Women’s Hour as all the women that I have spoken to about it no longer listen to it as they say they have moved on. Is it an absolute waste of TV licence payers’ money? Is having a programme devoted to just one genders' issues an irrelevance in these modern egalitarian times? Just to be controversial and because I have woken up in a miserable mood I predict that in ten years time half of every football team + bench will be women and they will all have pay parity with the men.
Working yesterday and a male customer said that he had to take female hormone pills and would soon turn into a woman. Look on the bright side, I said, they'll also make you more intelligent. Yes, I know it's unfair we can crack jokes like that and men can't, but eat my shorts
Oh yes we can: Two aliens were leaving in their spaceship after visiting the Earth. One said to the other "What did you think of the Earthlings?". His colleague replied " I liked the ones with brains but I didn't think much of the ones with ovaries." Eat my jockstrap as they say. I told you I was in a miserable mood!
I know that as the testicle joke...works with ovaries, but suggests the aliens did dissections....always knew they were nasty creatures. Don't worry you'll be in a better mood tomorrow when West Ham and Reading lose (I wish).
No one should be allowed to say anything about another race, ethnic group, social group or gender if they take offence at it being reversed so that they are the subject.
The reason that comments directed at black people are taken more seriously than those directed at white people is because the background of slavery means it hits a nerve. Similarly, jokes against men are taken lightly because they have no history of being regarded as inferior. Banter to one person is wrong if another is offended...that's just good manners. Personally, I like a good laugh if people can also laugh at themselves. Have to say my Pompey-supporting work mates are developing a sense of humour about themselves, whereas I no longer tease them because it's too cruel.
This whole women in football debate is quite an interesting one in that I had two sisters who were real tomboys when they were young and they were excellent footballers. They could play as well as any boy in our school. At that time though there was no opportunity for women to play but I am sure that if they were of today's generation then they would be playing to quite a good level. All the women in my family have been good at sport. My youngest daughter was a superb badmington player and surprised many men who thought they were good when she left them well and truly beaten. She was also a cracking swimmer and netball player. Last nights TV programme was not so much about women as sportswomen but women in various managerial and support roles in the game. What it revealed was how football is run by men of very bad manners and I don't mean manners in a chivalrous way but in terms of showing common decency and respect towards other people. I am astounded that any person who would want their business or organisation to succeed would be rude to or turn their back on anyone with ability and talent because of their gender.
A woman has to be the best to succeed in a man's arena, so I was never worried about female officials at games because I knew they would be excellent to have got that far. The female linesman (note I'm not daft enough to want to feminize a job title) who cost Grey his job, through no fault of her own, was also involved in another close call on an offside recently. An experienced referee on Sky showed that yet again she was spot on. The trouble is that women will make mistakes, but these are because they are human not female.
Managers should be appointed on their ability - sex, race etc shouldn't be an issue. My concern is we will see a female manager appointed purely for PR or political correctness purposes.
