Study: UK female coaching numbers fall as cost, childcare and culture act as barriers
A study from UK Coaching shows the number of women coaching in the UK has fallen by 6% in recent years, and the decline is steeper at grassroots level, BBC Sport reported on 1 October 2026. Emily Handyside, head of Britain's professional sports coach association and former Wales netball coach, said women "must work twice as hard as a man to be respected and credible".
UK Coaching’s research found a 10% drop in the number of female volunteer coaches at grassroots level, and additional studies point to systemic barriers including bullying, harassment and unequal opportunities. FA data released this week show half of girls who play organised football say they would tell a female coach something they could not tell a parent or guardian, compared with one in eight for a male coach, while only 7% of people coaching grassroots football in England are women. A Bloomsbury Football Foundation study in association with the FA found 13% of teenage girls play organised football at least once a week, versus 46% of boys, and of the girls who play 49% are mostly or always coached by someone of their own gender compared with 85% of boys.
Progress at elite level has been more visible: in January 2023 only four of 12 Women's Super League coaches were women, and now eight of 14 managers in the English top tier are women, including the managers of all three newly promoted sides—Amy Merricks at Birmingham, Crystal Palace's Jo Potter and Karen Hills of Charlton Athletic. UK Coaching’s Handyside cited a new Fifa quota requiring women's teams to have a female head coach or assistant as one factor helping to shift the balance at the top levels.
Cost is a recurrent barrier across the coaching pathway. The Uefa Pro Licence costs £14,000 and offers only 24 places per intake, while a C licence costs £650 and can be subsidised only if the applicant is currently associated with an FA-registered club. Handyside said: "The top three barriers are the same for men and women, and cost was in there for both," and added: "It is seen as a bigger barrier for women because when you must work twice as hard, the risk and reward balance is more outmatched. If you are a female looking at that cost and think you will also be overstretched and under supported, that £650 will have more of an impact."
Former England international Fara Williams, speaking on BBC's Women's Football Fallout, described the financial realities she faced: "The cost to do B and A licences, and the salaries or opportunities you will get from that investment, it does not quite marry up. They are quite costly, those badges." She continued: "I tried it [the coaching pathway], it was not feasible to take up that opportunity. Some can take that risk, but our generation of players, we were not paid enough to go mortgage free, bills must be paid. I needed to do something that would pay the bills, and football coaching was not that." Williams also recounted her coaching experience at Everton, Liverpool and Reading and the financial difficulties of transitioning into coaching after playing.
Coach and Uefa B licence holder Zoe Conning described the gap between elite and grassroots routes and the personal costs involved: she balances coaching at community club Manchester Laces with a day job as disability access officer at Wolverhampton Wanderers and has five years’ coaching experience including a full-time spell with Macclesfield. Conning said she received help funding for her B licence, which costs £1,250, but had to cover travel between Wolverhampton and Manchester, and could not pursue an A licence priced at £4,150 or contemplate the Pro level. She told BBC Sport: "For your B licence, you need another 12 months in coaching in an elite environment. How am I supposed to go to an elite club with no elite experience?" and added: "Cost is definitely one of the major impacts... You can get bursaries and grants; but for the Pro licence, where is that sort of money coming from when you are at grassroots or in voluntary roles? It is not feasible. There is definitely more work that can be done in advertising bursaries and support; maybe something similar to student loans. Coaches simply must be better paid - so often it is voluntary or minimum wage. Anything government funded would be good."
Family responsibilities were identified as a factor that disproportionately affects women. Former England international Anita Asante said: "For myself, the doors did open - I was fortunate to go into Bristol City and work with them, then with England Under-23s," and added: "But it became a choice for me; we have a young child at home, and for players so much of our playing career has been missing out on events and family - you want that time back. There are many young women who want to go into coaching but don't have the support. Then when coaches get there, they are often under-resourced, so the job becomes less about coaching, and it takes a toll on people." Handyside pointed to initiatives such as a campaign by Faversham Town to get mums into coaching and advocated for structural measures: "What can be unique about a woman's experience is the life stages - such as becoming a parent, as women carry the child," she said. "It disproportionately affects women. We need job shares, more part-time coaching roles. If you need to step away for a while, you should not have to step away forever. What has struck me at grassroots level is women being written off as soon as they have a family, which does not happen at elite level as much as they are protected by employment law. All coaches need to have agreements and contracts in place - if you need to step away, you should have guarantees where you can come back. People deserve a level of respect and protection at grassroots level."
Conning described the environment on some courses and matchdays as intimidating, saying her B licence cohort included "28 men taking the course, and three women. It is an intimidating environment to go into." The article notes elite successes in UK women's sport—England's football team winning back-to-back European Championships and England's Red Roses rugby union side claiming the World Cup at Twickenham—while Handyside argued that addressing culture and working conditions matters beyond visibility: "This is not 'see it to be it', that does not sit well with me," she said. "We want to show that the sports sector really values women and wants them around. This isn't about blaming men; it is about the nature of high-performance sport - all or nothing. It is the culture, the stereotypes that exist."
The BBC has additional interviews and supporting material on the issue available via the BBC Women's Football Weekly feed.
