Do women give up coaching during motherhood?

The Female Coaching Network (FCN) is working with Loughborough University and the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) to explore the experiences of tennis and padel coaches as they move through pregnancy and motherhood.

The research aims to better understand the challenges and barriers women face when combining coaching careers with family life, and how coaching environments can better support them.

For women to build sustainable careers in coaching, support needs to reflect their experiences at different stages of life. Understanding what pregnancy and motherhood mean for coaches’ working lives is an important part of that conversation.

Insights from the study will help inform future policies and resources, with the aim of creating a more inclusive and sustainable coaching environment for women.

FCN’s involvement brings the network into a collaboration focused on understanding these experiences and informing how women are supported within the profession.

“Decisions about support are often made without fully understanding the experiences of the people they are intended to help. We want to help shape guidance that is informed by the realities of coaching and motherhood, based on the voices of the women themselves.”

Professor Leanne Norman - Director of the Loughborough University Research Institute for Women in Sport

The study forms part of wider work by Loughborough University’s Research Institute for Women in Sport to support women at every stage of their lives.

From developing maternity sportswear to informing pregnancy guidance for elite athletes, this work puts women’s experiences at the centre of research and innovation. The coaching study extends that focus to understanding how women can be better supported through pregnancy and motherhood within their coaching careers.

Explore Loughborough’s wider work on pregnancy and performance.