Women's Paid and Unpaid Work in the UK Voluntary Sector since 1978: A Qualitative Study of Small and Medium Size Organisations in Bradford

Since the publication of the Wolfenden Report The Future of Voluntary Organisations in 1978, the UK voluntary sector has grown exponentially and become an important actor in the delivery of welfare services. In this thesis, I examine women’s reported experiences of paid and unpaid work within this sector. I investigate why women continue to outnumber men in the sector’s workforce, and identify the ways in which voluntary-sector work is gendered. To do this, I draw on twenty-eight semi-structured ‘work history’ interviews with women who were volunteers, paid staff or both within voluntary organisations in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The analysis is split into three chapters. The first explores women’s initial engagements with the voluntary sector and pinpoints the times in women’s lives when they are more likely to enter into either paid or unpaid work in the sector. The second focuses on working conditions in the sector, and examines what factors make voluntary-sector work both desirable and possible for women. The third discusses how the voluntary sector has developed since 1978 and how these changes have impacted on its predominantly female workforce, with a particular focus on changes since the 2008 financial crash. Unlike previous research, this thesis focuses on women’s work in the voluntary sector specifically. My findings demonstrate that voluntary-sector work is particularly accessible to women and more aligned to their work prioritisations, career trajectories and lifestyles. I also discuss what the persistence of gender segregation in the sector means for the women who work within it.