Who volunteers?
According to a report released this month by The Corporation for National and Community Service (2007), 31.6% of American women volunteered time in the past three years, compared to 24.3% of men, with median hours per year of 50 and 52 per volunteer, respectively. Factors that the report found tied to volunteer service on the community level were commute time, education, and home ownership. The survey counted only volunteer activities done through an organization. A report released in April by the same organization (National & Community Service, 2007) showed the smallest difference between men's and women's volunteer rates in the Northeast, but this area also had the lowest volunteer rates overall. Regionally, the midwest had the highest volunteer rates for both men and women. According to a Research Triangle Institute (2007) press release, the April report "also discovered that the busier people's lives are the more likely they are to volunteer" (Nathan West, RTI researcher and report author).
Hiromi Taniguchi (2006) found that employment levels had different effects on men's and women's volunteering. Women working part-time were more likely to volunteer than women working full-time, but this did not hold true for men. Unemployment inhibited men's volunteering. Thomas Smith (2005) looked only at working adults, and concluded that women were more likely to volunteer overall.
I stopped doing organized volunteer work last March. Prior to that, I'd been volunteering fairly consistently for a few years (five?) with a single organization. I had planned to get involved in a literacy program, but I kept getting sidetracked, and now it's been over a year and it's looking less and less likely. The group that I volunteered with was focused on men's health, but well over half of my fellow volunteers were women. I'd guess that the breakdown was something like 70%-30%, but I don't have any data to back that up. It strikes me that volunteer numbers don't give you any insight into job choices. How many women vs. men have their main source of employment at a community center, a food kitchen, a library -- or in an ambulance crew, a fire department, or as policemen?
Hiromi Taniguchi (2006) found that employment levels had different effects on men's and women's volunteering. Women working part-time were more likely to volunteer than women working full-time, but this did not hold true for men. Unemployment inhibited men's volunteering. Thomas Smith (2005) looked only at working adults, and concluded that women were more likely to volunteer overall.
I stopped doing organized volunteer work last March. Prior to that, I'd been volunteering fairly consistently for a few years (five?) with a single organization. I had planned to get involved in a literacy program, but I kept getting sidetracked, and now it's been over a year and it's looking less and less likely. The group that I volunteered with was focused on men's health, but well over half of my fellow volunteers were women. I'd guess that the breakdown was something like 70%-30%, but I don't have any data to back that up. It strikes me that volunteer numbers don't give you any insight into job choices. How many women vs. men have their main source of employment at a community center, a food kitchen, a library -- or in an ambulance crew, a fire department, or as policemen?