According to a new survey from YouthNet and v, women overwhelmingly dominate volunteering jobs.
In today’s world, where men still command the greater majority of top executive positions and consistently get paid more than women working at the same level, it’s certainly refreshing to see women shining through in at least one area. The survey throws up the question, however, of whether volunteers of either gender are getting the best they can from volunteering.
The survey, which was completed by 925 volunteers and carried out by do-it.org, showed that 72% of respondents are female. Perhaps predictably, it also said that the most popular area to volunteer in was education or other forms of working with children, whilst working with prisoners and ex-offenders was the least popular.
Up until this point, it seems all well and good, until we discover that 10% of volunteers find their placements “boring”, and a further one in ten said that their placements were “disorganised”.
So what is going on here? Women, who are statistically disadvantaged in the jobs market, even in hip and progressive green careers, are attempting to boost their employment credentials by taking on volunteering jobs, which provide experience and contacts. That’s positive, but then, volunteers are gravitating – perhaps through preference, perhaps due to sexist expectation – towards teaching and working with children. On top of this, a sizeable proportion is bored with disorganised placements, which implies that volunteers are not getting a great deal out of it at all.
There are a few problems here. Perhaps volunteers do not realise the sheer range of volunteering that is available out there, in all sectors, and simply slip into the classroom assistant role. Despite the earlier jibes about men dominating everything, why are men only a small minority in the volunteering sector?
It may all boil down to the same problem; a lack of positive representation in the ether about volunteering. From this picture, women volunteer to boost their experience, but men, with their statistical employment advantage, disregard it as they do not need any more help. Further, due to the relatively low profile of volunteering, volunteers stick in a position that bores and frustrates them, instead of choosing a different role from a wide range of options.
What we need to solve this problem is a greater drive to attract interest in volunteering positions. This has already started, with various government officials and ministers supporting volunteering projects, but more needs to be made of the variety of volunteering jobs out there, and the benefits – aside from CV buffing – that a volunteering job can bring.
Author
Rachel Charman, a writer for JuicyJobs; Ethical Jobs UK – an environmentally friendly green job search board which offers free job listings to Environmental, NGO’s, NFP’s and ethical companies promoting green, fair trade services and support sustainable living. For job seekers Juicyjobs can help you find the ideal ethical jobs in London.
