Women and Girls Referees: Building a Transformative Infrastructure

In July-August 2022, an online survey for a research project titled “Women and Girls Referees: Building a Transformative Infrastructure” was distributed via numerous channels. At the time little was known about women and girls as sport officials (referees and umpires) and we were keen to understand what NSOs in Aotearoa New Zealand were doing in this space AND we also wanted to understand and hear the experiences of women and girls sport officials in Aotearoa New Zealand. Links to the two separate surveys were emailed to various sport organisations and other sport-related organisations throughout the country with a request for them to be distributed to either those responsible for sport officials in NZ NSOs or to women and girls in the sport officials’ arena.

These research questions were presented:
· How can women and girls be encouraged and supported to become a sport official?
· What support mechanisms are required to recruit and retain women and girls as a sport official?

With the research objectives being:
· To identify support mechanisms to enhance the recruitment and retention of women and girls to become a sport official.
· To identify potential support mechanisms to facilitate women and girls sport official career development pathways.

For the ‘NSO Women and Girls’ Sport Official Survey’ there were 17 fully completed surveys. Several others were attempted, but not fully completed and thus not considered in the analysis. For the ‘Women and Girls' Sport Officials' Experiences Survey’ there were 452 completed responses out of 814 total responses and like the NSO survey, those not fully completed were not included in the analysis.

If you have any other questions or want more details, please contact Sarah on S.I.Leberman@massey.ac.nz