An example of success at elite level is the Women’s Super League. In January 2023, only four of 12 WSL coaches were women.
Now, eight out of 14 managers in the English top tier are women,, external including the managers of all three newly promoted sides – Amy Merricks at Birmingham, Crystal Palace’s Jo Potter and Karen Hills of Charlton Athletic.
A new Fifa quota stating women’s teams must have a female head coach or assistant has also helped redress the balance in top-level football.
However, at grassroots level it is a different story, with barriers including cost and childcare, even for former Lionesses.
“That number is a shock,” said ex-England international Fara Williams, speaking on the BBC’s Women’s Football Fallout about the drop in coaching numbers.
“The cost to do B and A licences, and the salaries or opportunities you will get from that investment, it does not quite marry up. They are quite costly, those badges.
“I tried it [the coaching pathway], it was not feasible to take up that opportunity. Some can take that risk, but our generation of players, we were not paid enough to go mortgage free, bills must be paid. I needed to do something that would pay the bills, and football coaching was not that.
“When I was playing, I was adamant I was going to be a coach, I coached all the development teams at Everton, Liverpool and Reading, but it is so different. When you are playing you don’t have the opportunities to coach at a higher level, then when you come out the game you don’t have the money.”
The Uefa Pro Licence, external – the qualification needed to coach at the highest level of English football – costs £14,000, and there are only 24 places per intake.
For a C licence, the lowest certification level, the cost is £650., external This can be subsidised, but only if the applicant is currently associated with an FA registered club, creating a chicken and egg situation.
Handyside acknowledges that cost is a major barrier – for women and men.
“The top three barriers are the same for men and women, and cost was in there for both,” she said.
“It is seen as a bigger barrier for women because when you must work twice as hard, the risk and reward balance is more outmatched.
“If you are a female looking at that cost and think you will also be overstretched and under supported, that £650 will have more of an impact.”