Since the inception of Title IX, women's participation in sport has significantly increased. However, there is a significant decline in the number of women in the coaching profession (Acosta & Carpetner, 2012). Scholars claim that women's lower intention to advance their career may be contributing to their limited representation in leadership positions (e.g., Cunningham et al., 2003; van Vianen & Keizer, 1996). As an exploratory investigation, and informed by the existing literatures (e.g., DeRue & Wellman, 2009; Dragoni et al., 2009; Machida et al., 2012; Moran-Miller & Flores, 2011) and theories (Bandura, 1997; Van Velsor et al., 2010), the purposes of the present study were (a) to examine the influences of a wide array of antecedents on assistant coaches' intentions to advance their career, and (b) to investigate possible gender differences. The antecedents examined in the present study included leader competency, motivation to lead, leader self-efficacy, outcome expectancy, developmental experiences which consist of developmental challenges and head coach professional support (i.e., feedback, support, and mentoring), learning orientation, work-family and family-work conflicts, and gender discrimination. Six hundred and seventy-three assistant coaches who coach collegiate women's teams and 245 of their head coaches participated in the study. Data analyses were conducted in two main phases. First, structural equation models were tested with the whole sample of assistant coaches (N = 673). Second, using composite scores of the factors confirmed in the first phase, I conducted path analyses with the sub-sample of assistant coaches who had head coaches' evaluations of assistant coaches' leader competency (n = 245). Multiple indicators multiple causes (MIMIC) models and multiple group analyses were conducted to examine gender differences. The results from the two phases of the analyses were generally consistent. Overall, the results showed that leader self-efficacy and outcome expectancy were positively related to career intention through their effects on motivation to lead. Developmental experiences, which consist of developmental challenges and head coach professional support, were positively related to leader self-efficacy. Learning orientation was positively related to engagement in developmental experiences. In addition, the results showed that family-work conflict was directly and negatively related to motivation to lead, while gender discrimination was negatively related to outcome expectancy, which in turn was related to motivation to lead. The findings from the present study also suggest possible gender differences in the roles of the factors examined. Although women had higher outcome expectancy and motivation to lead than men, women reported lower career intention, leader self-efficacy, and developmental challenges than men. Theoretical and research implications as well as practical implications of the findings are discussed.
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