Barriers to Gender Diversity in Leadership: A volunteer perspective

Women remain significantly underrepresented in leadership and decision making around the world (Bulloch et al., 2021). In Australia, leadership roles remain heavily male-dominated at all levels, and only 1 in 4 organisations have a gender balanced leadership team (WGEA, 2022). This has prompted the Australian Government to develop a Nation Strategy to Achieve Gender Equality (Australian Government, 2023). Whilst gender diversity has mainly been examined through the lens of employment and salary gaps, the United Nations recognises that gender disparities are more widespread systematic issues that are also affecting the volunteering sector (UNV, 2021). Australian Emergency Management organisations, for example, rely on over 400,000 volunteers, yet women make up only 7% of those in leadership roles (Hall & Bendrups, 2019). To enable the volunteer sector to better represent the diverse communities they support, targeted strategies are required to increase women’s representation in volunteer leadership. Such strategies require a clear understanding of the unique barriers facing women volunteers. This research aimed to identify perceived barriers to leadership faced by women relative to men volunteers. We commenced the investigation with a scoping review to identify obstacles to leadership for women in the existing literature. The findings were integrated into a framework delineating known gender barriers to leadership. Data were collected from 2,418 volunteers in a large volunteer-involving organisation to capture individuals’ experiences and feelings towards their volunteer role and factors that may have held them back from putting their hand up to take on a leadership position. One thousand two hundred and fifteen text responses were coded against the known barriers framework and additional themes that emerged. The findings reveal that women were 8% more likely to experience barriers to leadership compared to men. Women disproportionately reported traditional masculine culture as the thing holding them back from putting their hand up for leadership positions, with 1 in 5 women reporting this barrier. Women were more likely to experience barriers relating to discrimination, harassment and bullying relative to men, as well as barriers relating to poor relational support and resources, such as lack of formal and informal networks, lack of sponsorship and lack of mentoring. Feelings of self-doubt and lack of confidence in their own abilities, including perceptions relating to age and lack of experience, were also barriers that disproportionately impacted women. The findings provide insights into deeper gender issues that exist in organisations and can guide policies to improve gender diversity in leadership.