The conversations around former national netball coach Lisa Alexander’s application for the vacant North Melbourne AFL coaching position – and the club’s decision not to offer her an interview – have provided telling insights to how women who want to extend their careers into men’s sports are still viewed.
The responses were to be expected, given this is a woman who has expressed interest or intent to enter the male sporting arena and take on a traditionally male role. “She’s dreaming”, ”she doesn’t have the right experience” and so on.
And, of course, there are the comparisons that assume issues of gender equality can be as simple as flipping the scenario. That women would not want male coaches from the AFL or NRL entering traditionally female-dominated sports such as netball and taking up space there. How would they feel if that happened? Actually, women are pretty used to male coaches taking the reins of most women’s sports.
But there have also been some interesting discussions about why this is still such a talking point in 2020. It is still so rare to see women in coaching ranks outside of traditional women’s sports, that when one comes along with experience like Alexander, albeit outside of the sport to which she is applying, it causes some kind of short-circuit. We are not sure what to think.
There is support for Alexander, who has won many fans from her stellar record with the Diamonds across a decade and 102 Tests at an 81% win rate. There is also support from advocates of women in sport and gender equality who want long-awaited change.
But there is uncertainty about how to position Alexander’s application in moving the women-in-coaching proposition forward. Questions of experience – the “right experience”, and what exactly that is – are adding to the debate about whether she was worthy of at least an interview.
And perhaps these conversations might represent a small silver lining of which Alexander can be proud, for having put her hand up in this way. Her passion to further her coaching career, to break barriers and push herself professionally are not in doubt. She is intelligent, pragmatic and provocative – in the best ways – and she knew this move would make waves, and has not shied away from over the past couple of days.
After being knocked back for an interview with North Melbourne on Monday afternoon, Alexander told AAP: “It was a thanks but no thanks. I was told I need to get more experience.” For somebody who has coached at the highest level of one sport, the term “experience” is driving debate.
In this context, the experience required is specific to coaching Australian rules football – in particular the men’s game. To many, it is as simple as that. But does that mean we cannot talk about what a woman with a different kind of experience could bring to an elite men’s sporting team and its potential value. ?
The conversation that should follow Alexander’s rejected application is not just about how one gets the experience deemed worthy enough to enter these spaces. It also needs to ask how there can be room for innovative approaches to what constitutes “the right experience” that female coaches can offer and also develop once in the role. What can be done to facilitate these kinds of opportunities?
The common responses to Alexander’s perceived lack of experience indicate she needs to start at the bottom – potentially in community and amateur footy – to learn what it takes.
“People always say to me, ‘Oh, you should start at the bottom and work your way up’,” she said in an interview with Guardian Australia. “Well, would you say that to the CEO of BHP? If they went across to Macquarie Bank, would they have to go to the bottom of the pile there? I mean, it’s absurd. But that’s the sort of argument I have to put together for people who don’t understand.”
Some may disagree with Alexander here, and that’s OK. But shutting down the conversation completely does a disservice to how we can potentially harness, in a unique way, the many highly skilled women who already exist in our elite sporting landscape.
And there is movement in the development space. Leagues are starting to step up to the plate to provide that elusive experience and support – the AFL launched a women’s coaching academy in 2018 that has taken two rounds of six women in the last two years on a 12-month training program. But there is a difference between providing pathways for emerging talent and diversifying the talent pool of women already around, yet who might not fit the “right experience” check box on an application.
Alexander might not be the right woman for the job. It might not be the right time to make a bold change to process, as the AFL industry, and many sports, face a difficult post-Covid recovery period. But in declining to consider how women can contribute to sport in this way, we lose opportunities to bring them in at all. The doors remain closed.
Alexander can offer a lot, and there are many women before her who could do the same but were overlooked and disregarded. If we start to think about Alexander’s job rejection as a loss of extensive experience that could be refashioned and applied to men’s AFL, rather than a risk-avoidance exercise, maybe then we can start to re-frame what “the right experience” means for women in coaching.
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