Evidence-Based Strategies to Enhance Women Sport Officials’ Recruitment and Retention

Sport plays an integral role in society, but competitive sporting events would not exist without sport officials. Research has shown a decrease in the number of qualified sport officials, highlighting the need for evidence-based recruitment and retention strategies. Extant literature mostly focuses on men sport officials, with little understanding of how to recruit and retain women sport officials. Using a secondary analysis, the purpose of this research was to explore women sport officials’ perspectives on recruiting and retaining other women sport officials. Participants ( N = 495) responded to the question, “How can we attract more women to officiating?” A content analysis of written responses yielded four themes: (a) Promoting Officiating to Women, (b) Greater Inclusion and Respect for Women Officials, (c) Educational and Mentoring Opportunities for Women Officials, and (d) Offering Incentives and Additional Support for Women Officials. These results highlight the importance of implementing specific recruitment strategies suggested by participating women officials to help increase and promote women officiating in sport.