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Good sports: new research shines light on women in volunteering
The research, Good Sports, was funded by Sport England and showed that sports organisations and groups attract the most volunteers in society, with 54% of all formal volunteers involved in sport. However, data reveals that men are more than twice as likely (30%) to volunteer in sport than women (14%).
The Good Sports research looks to further understand what motivates women to engage in volunteering and what benefits and challenges women face in the sport sector. Fifty-four volunteers were interviewed from a range of sports and from sports clubs, parkrun and non-sports groups.
The key research findings highlight the often-discriminatory experiences of women in core market sports such as boxing or rugby, which are particularly associated with male participation. It also raises the challenges women face in certain volunteer roles such as coaching, due to the time demands and expectations of the roles and often having to balance family commitments too.
Good Sports provides recommendations to improve the volunteer experience for women in the sports sector, including auditing volunteer roles to reflect on how they portray gender stereotypes and increasing flexibility of the roles. Read the key findings of the report here.
To create a welcoming and inclusive environment within the sport volunteering sector, the researchers have made eight key recommendations:
1. Sport organisations should review volunteer roles to see how they reflect traditional gender stereotypes and make changes where necessary.
2. Understand the motivations of female volunteers and provide training for staff and volunteers to meet these needs.
3. Ensure procedures are clear and available to volunteers for challenging gender discrimination.
4. Make volunteering a social experience; this is key to attracting and keeping female volunteers.
5. Consider introducing ‘family friendly’ volunteer roles by allowing volunteers to bring their children along e.g. parkrun.
6. Avoid gender stereotypes in volunteer communications and promote both male and female roles equally.
7. Improve flexibility of working, including; changing meeting times to suit people with families and increasing short term volunteer roles to support parents.
8. Actively encourage women to apply for roles with increased responsibility.
The study will be used to inform the work of Women in Sport as well as Sport England’s strategy on volunteering. The full research team was: Dr Leanne Norman, Dr Hayley Fitzgerald, Dr Annette Stride, Dr Samantha Holland, Dr AJ Rankin-Wright, Ellie May, Dr Leonie O'Dwyer, Robert Stanley, Vicky Gilbert, and Luke Barnes.
Dr Norman is a full-time researcher within the field of sport and sociology, internationally-recognised for her research and writing within the area of equality and diversity related to sports coaching, sports leadership and organisations. Her current research is focused on examining the experiences of different groups of women in leadership and coaching positions within sport.