Does gender matter while coaching?

With International Women's Day occurring on the 8th of March, I was reminded of an incident 

as a young 22-year-old reporter with the long-shut Business India Television. I questioned the editor on why I was being paid less than the print reporter who had just joined us inspite of having more experience in hardcore TV news. The answer: my colleague is married and has to support a family!

What, you may ask, does that have to do with coaching? It's the attitude that persists. Inspite of the sweeping changes in society and women's rights even a more diverse profession such as coaching is not immune to gender bias.

Even a cursory glance shows that while there is no shortage of women in coaching, there is an informal division wherein women tend to be life coaches and men leadership coaches. We might get some insights into why that is happening by a look at a study by www. betterup.com.

According to the study in April 2021, "There were unique differences between men and women in how they reported they would leverage their coaching. For example, men said that they desired more support in technical skills and building expertise, whereas women reported a desire for more support around communication, executive presence, and issues tied to well-being."

This difference may also get reflected in the fact that women often find themselves on career tracks that can emphasise communication and executive presence and men which emphasise technical skills. The lack of women in STEM and core business roles and at the board level is a well-known issue.

This is quite similar to what happened in print journalism where politics and crime were reported by men and women tended to get allocated the so-called softer health and women's issues beats. But TV journalism changed that, as women poured into a sector hungry for talent, hard vs soft news divisions went away.

Something similar may happen to the world of coaching can happen as the post-pandemic world unlocks a greater number of women leaders. As more women enter the leadership arena, the informal division between coaches into life and executive coaching could dissolve.

And to answer the original question of this article. Gender definitely does not matter in coaching. What matters is the chemistry between the coach and the client. That matters the most. Happy Coaching!