Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
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Centre of Social Justice in Sport and Society
This study focused on establishing an in-depth picture of adult women volunteering in sport in comparison to men, and women and men who volunteer in the non-sport sector.
Sport is the third most common sector for people to volunteer and statistics show that two fifths of sports volunteers are female. Recent research also demonstrates that decision making to volunteer in sport is influenced by gender and the consequence of this is more men than women volunteer. Quantitative research in sports volunteering has focused on satisfaction, decision-making, time and future intentions. Importantly, gender differences, along with age and employment status, impact on these features of volunteering. This research sought to better understand why women volunteer and how they experience these roles in sport and non-sport sectors. Qualitative examinations of sports volunteering-focused research shows a lack of attention specifically given to women volunteers.
It is evident from all of the women volunteers interviewed in our wider study that volunteering formed a significant touchstone in their lives. For many, there is an ebb and flow to their volunteering engagement and the value it is afforded in their lives. Whilst volunteering may be undertaken and experienced in different ways by the women in this research, they also collectively recognised the qualities of volunteering that stimulated their continued commitment to volunteering.
The approach
Two primary data collection approaches were adopted including desktop literature review (strand one), and interviews and ‘real time’ experiences (strand two). As part of strand two of the research (interviews and real time experiences), we sought to capture a range of voices within the research and collected experiences from a range of demographic backgrounds to ensure a range of participants were represented. Men and women participants were sampled from three regions in England: the Midlands (one region with a low voluntary base); Yorkshire (a region with an average voluntary base); and London and the South East (one of the highest areas in England in terms of volunteer numbers). Within each of these regions, volunteers were sampled from three contexts: core sports (National governing body-based); mass market sports and their corresponding County Sport Partnerships; and the non-sport sector. To understand further how sport and non-sport volunteers experience their role in a more dynamic fashion, part of the empirical component of data collection comprised the collation of ‘real time’, in situ experiences. These experiences were captured using social media, principally Facebook and Twitter. A Facebook group, entitled the ‘GiVR’ (Gender in Volunteering Research) project, was set up dedicated to capturing participant experiences, media, stories, and reflections.
The impact
As a result of the research, Women in Sport produced a ‘Good Sports’ guide for sports organisations towards supporting women in their volunteering workforce.
Published 2017
In partnership with Women in Sport, we led a workshop with a number of invited sports organisations to share the findings and provide guidance on supporting good practice towards engaging female volunteers:
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