The NFL has a record 12 women in coaching positions — meet the execs behind the equity push

The NFL has a record 12 women in coaching positions — meet the execs behind the equity push

VIEW IN BROWSER | SUBSCRIBE     CLOSING THE GAP Tuesday, August 17, 2021 Courtney Connley is an associate editor for CNBC Make It who covers women's economic advancement and diversity and inclusion in the workplace. You can follow her on Twitter @ClassicalyCourt. The NFL has a record high of 12 women serving as coaches this season thanks to the efforts of NFL executives Sam Rapoport and Venessa Hutchinson who head up the league's annual Women's Careers in Football Forum (WCFF).    That number, according to Rapoport who serves as the NFL's senior director of diversity, equity and inclusion, is a huge increase from when she first joined the league as a marketing intern in 2003. And, it's a rise from the eight women who served in coaching positions last season.    "If you looked at female coaches, scouts or female officials, there were basically zeros across the board," Rapoport tells CNBC Make It about the state of the league's diversity when she joined in 2003. "Now, when you look at the landscape of the NFL this season, we have 12 female coaches and over 12 female scouts. We have two female officials and we have female presidents. We have females at almost every level, except for that top head coach and GM spot, which will come soon."   The progress that the NFL has seen around gender diversity is largely due to the WCFF, which started in 2017 under Rapoport's leadership. The two-day event, which takes place every year in February during the NFL combine, includes presentations, breakout sessions and panel discussions with league coaches, general managers and executives. The goal of the event is to link highly qualified women with decision-makers in football so they can have equal access to jobs and opportunities.    So far in 2021 alone, 44 women who've previously participated in the WCFF program have landed a football operations role at the professional or collegiate level, the highest number of women ever recruited from the forum in a single year, reports the NFL. Of the participants who have secured a position this year, 83% are women of color.    "You have to be very intentional and very purposeful to make sure that it's not just white women who benefit from this type of diversity initiative," says Venessa Hutchinson, the NFL's senior manager of football programming.    Since joining the league in 2018, Rapoport says that Hutchinson has played a pivotal role in ensuring that the WCFF program is successful and inclusive of all women. From its inception to today, WCFF participants have secured 181 career opportunities in football at the professional, collegiate or high school level, with 100 of these opportunities being in the NFL, the league reports. Though these numbers show positive signs of progress, Rapoport and Hutchinson say that the league still has a long way to go with achieving gender equity for women in football.  To read more about the work that Rapoport and Hutchinson are doing to increase football opportunities for women at the professional and collegiate level, head to CNBC Make It's website here. 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