Local softball coach Kristen Harrison says coaching in a male-dominated industry can be an intimidating experience.

New research from Victoria University has found the lack of representation of women in coaching positions, particularly in junior sports, can cause children to hold negative gender perceptions.

Female sports coaches remain a rarity, accounting for only approximately 15 per cent of accredited high-performance coaches according to the Australian Institute of Sport.

Ms Harrison says she has noticed a change in the gender equity of coaches in softball over the past two years. She says it is great to see more women gaining the confidence to put themselves forward for coaching and leadership roles.

Ms Harrison says women still face many barriers to coaching, but the experience is worth it.

“It can be a bit scary at first but once you push past, you realise how much benefit you’re also receiving from doing it,” she says.

Ms Harrison, 22, has been playing softball since she was nine years old and was inspired by her Mum who had played when she was younger. As a junior player, she says she was mostly coached by men with the exception of one woman, who she described as an incredible coach.

A high-achieving state and international softball player, Ms Harrison has been coaching since she was around 15 years old and has since gone on to complete her official coaching accreditation.

Ms Harrison says she would like more people to recognise the value women can bring to a coaching role.

For Ms Harrison, the most enjoyable part of her coaching role is making a difference in the lives of junior players. She says people often underestimate the impact a coach can have.

“They’re teaching you so many good qualities…and a lot of life lessons and skills through a sport, which is really amazing,” she says.

“You can take those lessons into adulthood.”

Her advice for young women aspiring to coach is to seek advice from other women, both players and coaches.

“If you’ve got a good support network you’ll be okay,” she says.

“Have that belief and confidence in yourself that you are doing the right thing.”

Research Fellow at Victoria University Stefan Sambol was one of the researchers involved in the Beyond Stereotypes study, funded by the Victorian Government’s Change Our Game initiative.

The study aimed to explore gender bias towards sports coaches in children and their parents. When asked to select from a series of faces who would make the “best” coach, the children were twice as likely to select a man over a woman.

While nearly all of the children in the study had been coached by a man previously, only 65 per cent had been coached by a woman. Mr Sambol says children who had been previously exposed to a female coach were less likely to display gendered bias during the activity.

“As long as children were exposed to women in these coaching roles, they did not hold these biased views – or if they did, it was certainly less,” he says.

Mr Sambol says the results could be because of a lack of exposure to female coaches in childhood.

“The norm for these kids was to see a male coach. Anyone that deviated from that norm, it counteracts their worldview,” he says.

In addition to a lack of exposure, Mr Sambol says parental influence can contribute to bias.

“The old saying, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree – at least in this case, if parents viewed women coaches less favourably, their children were also more likely to view female coaches less favourably.”

To help alter the negative perceptions of parents, Mr Sambol says sporting clubs should publicise the achievements of all of their athletes, regardless of gender, to make gender representation visible.

“Whether through a social media profile or a web page, just doing that small part and increasing visibility can go a long way in subtly influencing parental attitudes.”

Mr Sambol says he would also like to see cultural changes happen within sporting organisations to recognise gender bias may exist, and build leadership teams that combat this.

“If you have a management culture that actually is motivated to see equality between men and women in these roles, you’ll naturally get it,” Mr Sambol says.

“You’ll still be hiring the best person for the job because the truth is that has nothing to do with a person’s gender.”