Factors Affecting Women Sports Officials’ Intention to Leave Across Europe

Pamela Wicker; George B. Cunningham; Tom Webb

doi:10.1123/jsm.2023-0162

Factors Affecting Women Sports Officials’ Intention to Leave Across Europe

Pamela Wicker
, George B. Cunningham
, Tom Webb

University of Bielefeld
University of Florida
University of Portsmouth

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

320 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This study examines the factors affecting women officials’ intention to leave their chosen sport, including personal, work-related, and socio-cultural factors. The empirical analysis is based on survey data of women officials in 69 different sports across Europe (n=3,214). Overall, 10.7% of women expressed a turnover intention. Regression analyses indicate that this intention is higher for women who have more officiating experience (16-20 years), officiate at lower levels of sport (grassroots, junior), frequently experience abuse, and dislike the stress and time commitments of officiating, lack of support from the federation, and their lack of opportunity to progress. Younger women (≤24 years) with a mentor, who enjoy being part of a sport community and live in a more gender equal society are less likely to leave. The findings suggest that multiple factors are at work which need to be addressed by sport managers to retain women in officiating roles.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	399-410
Number of pages	12
Journal	Journal of Sport Management
Volume	38
Issue number	6
Early online date	24 Apr 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.2023-0162
Publication status	Published - 1 Nov 2024

Bibliographical note

Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.

This document is the author’s post-print version, incorporating any revisions agreed during the peer-review process. Some differences between the published version and this version may remain and you are advised to consult the published version if you wish to cite from it.

Funder

This research was conducted as part of the WINS project funded by an Erasmus+ grant (grant no. 623017-EPP-1-2020-FRSPO-SCP).

Funding

This research was conducted as part of the WINS project funded by an Erasmus+ grant (grant no. 623017-EPP-1-2020-FRSPO-SCP).

Funders	Funder number
European Commission Erasmus+	623017-EPP-1-2020-FRSPO-SCP

Keywords

gender
judge
mentoring
referee
turnover

Access to Document

10.1123/jsm.2023-0162

Webb2024AAMAccepted author manuscript, 1.02 MB

Cite this

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title = "Factors Affecting Women Sports Officials{\textquoteright} Intention to Leave Across Europe",

abstract = "This study examines the factors affecting women officials{\textquoteright} intention to leave their chosen sport, including personal, work-related, and socio-cultural factors. The empirical analysis is based on survey data of women officials in 69 different sports across Europe (n=3,214). Overall, 10.7\% of women expressed a turnover intention. Regression analyses indicate that this intention is higher for women who have more officiating experience (16-20 years), officiate at lower levels of sport (grassroots, junior), frequently experience abuse, and dislike the stress and time commitments of officiating, lack of support from the federation, and their lack of opportunity to progress. Younger women (≤24 years) with a mentor, who enjoy being part of a sport community and live in a more gender equal society are less likely to leave. The findings suggest that multiple factors are at work which need to be addressed by sport managers to retain women in officiating roles. ",

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Factors Affecting Women Sports Officials’ Intention to Leave Across Europe

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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Funding

Keywords

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