On Monday, NC State Athletics released the 2017-2018 Report on Athletic Program Participation Rates and Financial Aid Support Data to the student body. The report essentially outlines student and staff participation in sports separated by gender, as well as how much each team’s operating expenses are.

According to gopack.com, where the report was posted, The Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) “requires co-educational institutions of postsecondary education that participate in a Title IV federal student financial assistance program, and have an intercollegiate athletic program, to prepare an annual report to the Department of Education on athletic participation, staffing, and revenues and expenses by men’s and women’s teams.”

Furthermore, the university is required to publish the report publicly and make it accessible to any students, prospective students and members of the public who request it.

The report not only outlines the demographics for student athletes, but also for coaches of all the varsity athletic teams at NC State. Within these demographics, it’s interesting to note that there are significantly more male coaches at NC State than female coaches, not only on men’s sports teams but also on women’s sports teams.

According to the report, there is only one men’s team that has a female coach, and that’s the combined Track and Field team, wherein the coaches are combined for both women’s and men’s. Further, of the nine women’s varsity teams (including combined teams like Track and Field) four teams have full-time male coaches, whereas only three teams have full-time female coaches. For the one co-ed team — rifle — there are no female head coaches.

An article in the New York Times talks about the unfortunate reality that the presence of female coaches in the NCAA has dropped drastically, especially since the implementation of Title IX in the ‘70s.

“In 1972, when the gender equity law known as Title IX was enacted, women were head coaches of more than 90 percent of women’s college teams across two dozen sports,” the article states. “Now that number has decreased to about 40 percent.”

As unfortunate as it may be, the lack of female coaches on male teams is somewhat understandable, given the male-dominated sporting industry and toxic masculinity affecting the ways that men take direction and advice from women. However, when the problem extends to women’s teams as well, in that there are more male coaches leading women’s teams than female coaches, it’s clear that toxic masculinity is just a small part of a larger problem.

A 2017 report published by Inside Higher Ed, called the College Sport Racial and Gender Report Card, stated that overall, women held only 39.8 percent of head coaching jobs in women’s Division I sports in 2016-2017. An article in Athletic Business published in July noted that, according to a study conducted in February by the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota, only 20 percent of all NCAA coaching positions are filled by women.

All of this begs the question — what needs to change in order for more female coaches to be hired across the board, not just for women’s teams, but for men’s teams as well?

At the end of the day, it’s all well and good that NC State is making an effort (based on requirements given by the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act) to make a note of gendered and financial demographics within our athletic programs. However, it’s one thing to make note of the disparities and make those notes public for the student body. It remains to be seen what, if anything, NC State Athletics will do to bridge some of the gaps, particularly within the coaching staff.