Seeing women do the jobs that men usually take on has been unusual for the past years, but now the rate of women taking on men’s jobs has been constantly growing. When people think of coaches for men’s sports, they go straight to thinking that only men have the ability to coach male athletes. Coaching positions have been associated with men for the longest time, but these next few women prove that females do have the ability to take on major roles in the male athletic world.

The first ever woman to be hired by the NFL was Jennifer Welter, an Arizona Cardinals assistant Linebacker coach. Back in 2015, the Cardinals hired Welter as a preseason intern, but was given an opportunity to help coach the Cardinal linebackers. Welter only coached for a year due to the expiration of her internship. “I could not have dreamed big enough to imagine that this day would ever come,” commented Welter in an AZCentral interview. “Our players only want to be taught how to be better. They really don’t care who teaches them.” 

Welter played in the Women’s Football Alliance for 14 years, played in championship games four times, and won two gold medals from the International Federation of American Football Alliance. 

Katie Sowers is the first offensive assistant coordinator and coach that will be a female in the Super Bowl. Her career started in 2016 at an Atlanta Falcons training camp. In her two years leading up to the 2019 season, Katie was only a seasonal assistant coach, however now she is a full time offensive assistant. The San Francisco 49ers are the first team in NFL history to have a female coach participate in a Super Bowl.

Bernadette Mattox was the first woman to coach a Division 1 basketball team at the University of Kentucky. Starting in 1995, Mattox was promoted to the head coach position at the University of Kentucky and she would be their head coach from 1995-2003. After coaching the Connecticut Sun in the WNBA, Mattox left her job as a coach to raise her son, Vincent. 

Although there is a small amount of female coaches in male professional sports, that does not mean that it is impossible. Women are starting to build up momentum in the sports world, and that means that as the years go by there will be more and more female coaches in male sports.

 Kathryn Smith was the special teams’ quality control coach for the Buffalo Bills. Former President of the United States, Barack Obama, invited her to the White house. Smith, in 2014, was Rex Ryan’s administrative assistant with the New York Jets. Kathryn Smith was a part of the Buffalo Bills coaching staff from 2015 to 2016.   

Jenny Boucek is the assistant coach for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. Boucek started her career in coaching in 1999, coaching the WNBA’s Washington Mystics. However, her transition into professional male sports happened in 2017 when she joined the Sacramento Kings coaching staff as an assistant coach. She continues to play a part in the Dallas Mavericks coaching staff.