PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

This study examines the moderating effects ofnational female labor force participation, women insport leadership positions, and female medalists inrecent Olympic Games on women's probability tovolunteer in sport. Based on social role theory and thesimilarity attraction paradigm, we predict that allthree factors result in a higher probability of womento volunteer in sport, but with differences among agegroups. Linear probability models before and afterapplying coarsened exactmatching were estimatedusing data from the 2017 Eurobarometer (n=18,529).Theresultsshowthatwomenhaveasignificantlylower probability to volunteer in sport in countrieswith high female labor force participation and a highshare of women in leadership positions in sport orga-nizations. The likelihood of women volunteering insport is significantly higher in countries with a highshareoffemaleOlympicmedalists.Theagegroup-specific analysis asking whether volunteering shouldbe considered an investment in human capital byyounger women and/or an acquisition of social capitalby older women, reveals that a high presence ofwomen among leaders in sport organizations and Olympic medalists is significantly positively correlatedwith the probability for young women to volunteer insport. Managers and leaders of nonprofit sport organi-zations learn from our study that volunteering shouldbe perceived as an investment in human capital byyounger women rather than an attempt to acquiresocial capital by older women.