Over the years, Laurier swimming Head Coach Cathy Pardy has always observed a clear distinction by others between head coaches - and female head coaches, specifically. 

Pardy recognizes the importance of women in coaching and is taking advantage of every opportunity to uplift others in her position to help level the playing field, or in this case, the pool deck. 

A large part of this will be done through her role on a coaching committee for women across the country, established by the Canadian Swimming Coaches Association (CSCA). Already on the board of directors, Pardy shared that this process has been years in the making. 

"Over the last few years, [we've been] trying to promote women in coaching and sport. We've been working towards how can we, as a group of women, come together and service the needs of other women while promoting women to further their education and coaching and advance themselves in the higher ranks of high-performance sport," Pardy said

A former competitive swimmer herself, she explained that coaches are "addicted to our sport." Pardy was drawn to coaching by the opportunity to mentor other swimmers and coaches.

"It's not about being a mentor to just female coaches or female swimmers; it's about equality," she said.

Having now coached for over twenty years, swimming is still "a men's club and profession," Pardy explained. 

"I didn't recognize how many struggles and how many roadblocks there would be for me in my career, " she said, adding, "The biggest fear, I think, for women in sport is the fact that we feel like we're going to be passed over as we speak out and that we will lose our opportunity to advance or to be given opportunities. 

"We [as female coaches] want to be equal. We're all just coaches and that's the plain and simple story of it all."

Pardy recalled a time at nationals when you could count, on one hand, the number of female coaches. 

"Most of the time when you went to nationals, you saw women in assistant coach positions, not head coach positions. [We wondered] why are women not finishing their education and certifications at the higher level? And now we're starting to look at pay equity."

The committee was established for female head coaches with the understanding that "as women, let's stand up and be strong, work together, [and] teach each other how to get a leg up. Let's not tread on somebody to put them down so that we can stay in the higher ranking," Pardy said. 

"In swimming, there are more female athletes than there are male swimmers, so why are we not allowing female coaches to be a part of the partnership, all the way through to the top to mentor and be there for our female athletes to show that we are strong and show them that we can be leaders?" 

"We're only at the start of it, but now's the time to do it [and] now's the time to step up. We've paved a long road, and I certainly hope that the women on the committee are going to open doors and make it far easier for younger generations of women to come through and just take control and be given an opportunity."

The CSCA committee was also inspired by a group of Ontario swim coaches that created group chats to support each other throughout their seasons and been given the opportunity to participate in coaching workshops. 

Pardy found a session on public speaking particularly useful as it "provided us with the ability to have confidence and feel like we do have power [and] we do have a great opportunity here to be heard." 

These successes helped solidify the importance of a Canada-wide committee and support network for female head coaches.

It also highlighted the need to provide coaching support and learning opportunities that are offered to both women and men in swimming. 

"I think until we all come together in one spot to be accepting of one another in our own situations will we ever gain gender equity and I think it's so extremely important.

"It's about [working] together because our ultimate goal [as coaches] is to get our athletes onto the same national team. If we're trying to teach our athletes to be cohesive with each other, then why are we as [female and male] coaches not cohesive with each other?"

"I think when it comes to it, women and men coach differently and that's a given," Pardy said. "But a good coach will always set their boundaries. 

"To our male counterparts ... we're saying when a job becomes available, allow equal opportunity for all people to interview and if you have somebody interviewing, is the best person truly going to receive the job and are people treated equally?"

As for the best advice Pardy could give a female head coach, it would be "don't be afraid [and] don't undersell yourself, because we often say within the committee, men are hired based on their potential [and] women are hired based on what they've already achieved. 

"Let's change the narrative as women and start pushing our potential [so] we only need to back it up with our successes that we've already achieved," said Pardy, who has contributed to a course beginning to be offered in fall 2022 by Women and Gender Studies Instructor Bianca Rus called Gender and Sport (WS220).

"Let's start talking about "this is why you should hire me because I am strong, I am powerful, I get the point across, I set boundaries [and] goals, I am here to succeed, and I can do this because I've already achieved this.'"