Female volunteer community sport officials: a scoping review and research agenda

Abstract

ABSTRACT Research purpose The purpose of this scoping review is to explore the extant literature devoted to female officials at the community level of sport in order to identify existing knowledge and to determine a future research agenda that will address the underrepresentation of women amongst sport officials. Over the past two decades, there has been an increase in female sport participation in countries around the world, however, this has not been matched with an increase in the number of females taking up roles as officials (referees, umpires, judges, scorers, etc.) at the community level of sport. Research methods This paper uses a scoping review methodology to synthesize and analyse the extant research published on female community sport officials, to identify gaps in the existing literature, and to provide directions for future research. Results and findings It identifies a general lack of reported research on female officials within community levels of sport and that the existing research that has been published to date has focused on four themes: motives, barriers, supports and retention. Implications The paper proposes a research agenda focused on seven key themes: policy and governance, officiating pathways, recruitment, support, retention, performance, stress and well-being, as well as suggestions for research methods to explore these themes. Summarizing the current research literature on female community sport officials may help researchers, practitioners and policy makers understand the range of issues associated with the experience of female community sport officials and begin to prioritize efforts to address the lack of female sports officials.