The hiring of Nadia Doucoure as Carleton University’s first woman football coach doesn’t come close to solving the issue of representation in sports, but it’s a step in the right direction for the Ravens football program.
Doucoure was hired this month as Carleton’s new offensive assistant and receivers coach. The high-level football player is also the university’s first woman football coach, a hire seen by many as a step towards better representation on the school’s football team.
Representation in sport is crucial—many athletes enter sports to gain community and feel included. If participants do not feel included, they may not feel encouraged to participate.
Members of minority groups involved in sport are also subject to discrimination. With minimal representation or attempts to remedy it, this discrimination is given space to continue.
Coaching in Ontario University Athletics is disproportionately male-dominated. Even women in sports journalism experience sexism from coworkers and editors.
It appears that Carleton is making strides to improve representation. The university launched a gender equity committee last year after claims that men’s sports were being prioritized over women’s.
Hiring Doucoure was just one step Carleton Athletics took to increase inclusion this year, alongside efforts by the gender equity committee to amplify women players’ voices over social media and developing improved anti-discrimination training.
However, a few hires here and there are not enough to consider Ravens sports diverse or inclusive by any stretch. It takes much more work than a few sessions of anti-discrimination training to address barriers to participation and systemic exclusion of women and other minority groups from sports.
Women’s representation won’t be resolved until the playing field is even.
Featured graphic from file.
