The Experience of Former Women Officials and the Impact on the Sporting Community

Abstract

In an effort to explore the shortage of female sport officials, the authors examined the experience of eight former female basketball officials from five geographically diverse states in the U.S. who voluntarily left the role. Specifically, the authors asked former female basketball officials to describe their workplace experiences. Utilizing a phenomenological approach and workplace incivility framework, the results indicated that the felt social inequity for female officials detracted from the participants experiencing a sense of community in the workplace, which ultimately led to their discontinuation in the role. Results indicate four key factors that created this uncivil work environment. An examination of the data revealed four major themes. Specifically the female basketball officials reported experiencing a Lack of Mutual Respect from male counterparts; Perceived Inequity of Policies; a Lack of Role Modeling and Mentoring forand from female officials; and experiencing more Gendered Abuse than did their male counterparts. The combination of these four factors exacerbated the female officials' inability to connect to the officiating community and led to their withdrawal from the role. The results further indicate that women officials likely threatened the hegemonic characteristics of a sport setting. Although females have made great strides in terms of sport participation, the practical implications of this research suggest that understanding females in workplace roles, such as officiating, is vital if social equity is to be achieved in the sporting community.

Behind the stripes: female football officials' experiences

“…Previous research on Australia Rules Football (Kellett and Shilbury, 2007;Kellett and Warner, 2011) and basketball officiating (Warner, Tingle, and Kellett, 2013;Tingle, Warner, and Sartore-Baldwin, 2014) has indicated that the social worlds and creation of community is key to officials' retention. This current work further supports that notion, as the female football officials indicated that the sense of community that developed around officiating was fundamental to their experiences.…”

“…It would also be beneficial to interview female officials who have left the vocation of football officiating to see why they left and to analyse their experiences (e.g. Tingle et al, 2014;Warner, Tingle, and Kellett, 2013). The last suggestion is to explore the experiences of female football officials through a different lens or viewpoint such as the post-structuralist feminism framework.…”

“…A few studies have looked at females in officiating, but to the researcher's knowledge none of these studies have concerned female football officials. Tingle, Warner, and Sartore-Baldwin's (2014) investigated the workplace experience of eight former female basketball officials. The participants of this study described basketball officiating as "being comprised of uncivil gendered abuse and indicated that, in their experiences, the workplace atmosphere of the officiating community was filled with low levels of respect, unequal policies, and a dearth of female role models and mentors" (Tingle, Warner, and SartoreBaldwin , 2014, p. 23).…”

Contributors and Constraints to Involvement with Youth Sports Officiating

“…Findings from these studies revealed that there are multiple social and administrative factors associated with the retention and attrition of sports officials. Suggestions for future research resulting from these investigations included comparing and contrasting officials from other sports (Tingle et al, 2014;Warner et al, 2013) and examining differences between motives and constraints of officials from various sport contexts (Phillips & Fairly, 2014).…”

“…They examined umpiring as a form of serious leisure and found that veteran umpires derived identity and meaning from their role as umpires, which was reinforced by cohesion among their umpire group. Tingle et al (2014) used a workplace incivility framework to explore the experiences of former female basketball officials. Results indicated four key factors led to discontinuation as an official.…”