Athletic trainers; Jobs impacted by Title IX

Athletic trainers are a subject area I am not particularly knowledgeable on, so Barb’s presentation on Title IX and athletic trainers was quite useful and informative. Athletic trainers are a form of primary care providers, who are generally required to have certification and licensure. Athletic trainers only really became somewhat common in the mid 1900s, as caregivers for football players, who often got injured. Unsurprisingly, this field was entirely dominated by men—perhaps this was initially due in part by the lack of women who played football, as it was a male-only sport? Anyways, in 1972, title IX passed, adding many opportunities for women to participate in sports.

It was interesting to hear the contrast between Ms. Barcomb and Barb’s presentations, because women’s coaching jobs and athletic trainers seem to have fairly different results from the passing of Title IX. From Ms. Barcomb’s presentation, she presented information surrounding the negative impacts of Title IX on female coaches and athletic directors, in which women were less able to find coaching jobs than before Title IX was created. But for athletic trainers, the number of female athletic trainers greatly increased after its passing—by the 1990s, 44% of athletic trainers were women, and by 2019, more than half of the trainers were. When asked about this difference during the presentation, Barb mentioned that this may be due to people’s stereotypes, in which women are seen as the caregivers. While I think this is quite possibly part of the difference, I started thinking about other, professional caregivers, and there were some significant outliers; men, for example, hold about 60 percent of the jobs as doctors/physicians. This got me thinking: if the difference between these two doesn’t have to do with stereotypes, what could it be? Ms. Barcomb had mentioned the money that women’s sports made, as far as coaching goes, and how the profits had lured a lot of the men into the business, but it seems that athletic trainers have a similar median salary, so I’m not sure that’s the reason for the difference either. Honestly, I’m still not sure why it is that Title IX benefitted female athletic trainers so much more than female coaches.

On the note of salaries, Barb mentioned the gender wage gap among athletic trainers. Among some other statistics, this one stood out to me: the average salary for women with 16-20 years of experience is about $10,000 less than the average of man with same experience. I cannot imagine the frustration of working just as hard for just as long, but my work being valued as $10,000 less, just because of my gender. Hopefully, in the future, wage gaps as significant as these become a thing of the past.