By Kristen M. Pratt
While I was at the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) 52nd Annual Meeting in June, I attended the Gatorade Roundtable, which offered a panel of distinguished certified athletic trainers (ATCs) who represented all types of employment settings from professional sports to corporate environments. The purpose of the roundtable was for the students and newly certified athletic trainers to ask questions of the panel about various job settings and opportunities. The audience appeared to be made up almost entirely of students and at least half were women. Which athletic training specialty do you think received the most questions? Professional sports. The young and affable Jason Powell, ATC, an athletic trainer for the Los Angeles Clippers, a professional basketball team (albeit a notoriously unsuccessful one), was bombarded with questions-many from the female students wanted to know how to break into professional sports. This discussion sparked my curiosity. I wondered how many women athletic trainers and sports physical therapists are currently employed by professional sports teams? The NATA graciously provided me with the statistics on ATCs, which are pretty grim, while the APTA did not respond to my request for information. The total number of athletic trainers working in professional sports is 767, 64 of whom are women-a measly 8%. The professional sport with the least number of women ATCs is, not surprisingly, hockey, with two women ATCs. However, ATCs in professional tennis, which has only 14 total, is mostly made up of women: nine, to be exact. I asked Barbara Hoogenboom, PT, secretary of the Sports Physical Therapy Section of the APTA, and assistant professor, Department of Physical Therapy, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Mich, why women PTs and ATCs are underrepresented in professional sports. "Historically, these are men's sports. I think there is a longstanding network of people who are in this group [of ATCs working in professional sports], and it follows the old adage of ‘it's not what you know, but who you know.' You have to come up through the ranks and I don't think that women from early on are able to infiltrate the ranks. There are some teams, quite frankly, who wouldn't accept having a woman in those roles. The locker room issues are quite real, although at a professional level I don't believe the athletes are very worried about it, but the potential issues that exist between genders are part of it. I think there are some very qualified women who just wouldn't be considered for a position because of the good old boy network and the locker room [issues]." So what are national organizations doing to address this? Julie Max, MEd, ATC, president of the NATA, and head athletic trainer at California State University, Fullerton, comments, "Several years ago the NATA established the Women in Athletic Training Committee to address the issues our female members face, which are often much different than those of our male counterparts. Also, today's student-athletes are accustomed to seeing both male and female certified athletic trainers working side by side. In most cases the student-athlete is only concerned with the quality of care, not whether the athletic trainer is a man or woman. As these athletes enter professional sports over the next few years, I feel the attitude will become more open for female athletic trainers." Will the advent of more women's professional sports like the Women's National Basketball Association bring more women PTs and ATCs to the field? We'll see. Women seeking positions in pro sports must be willing to push forward against old-school mentalities into these arenas and they need support from their national organizations. Hoogenboom explicitly asked that women PTs who are currently involved in professional sports to please notify the Sports Section so it can help to support and promote them. I would love to hear from women ATCs and PTs in pro sports also. How did you break through the barriers? Your advice for women interested in working in the professional sporting realm would be helpful. Go ladies, let's hear you roar! —Kristen Pratt Machado is no longer Editor of Rehab Management. Please address any correspondence to Sarah Schmelling, Senior Editor, at cwolski@medpubs.com.
