Female refs-motivation and advantages

[carlos]

Hi,

I am a Spanish soccer ref and we are trying to start a campaing to recruit new referees. As we are all male referees (there was a girl among us two years ago but she quitted it very quickly), we don't have a clue about how to recruit female refs. Since women soccer is growing in our country lately, having also women referees is becoming a need for us.

We are looking for some help from female refs regarding to these two points:
- why did you enroll? (motivation)
- which are the benefits girls/women get from officiating soccer matches?

Please, if you're a female ref o know someone, please we'll be very grateful if you answered to these two questions. Maybe there is no much difference between recruiting boys and girls, but we don't have any ways to know it.

Thank you for your help,

Carlos Gutierrez

[CecilOne]

I absolutely hate the theory that the gender of the players should have anything to do with the gender of the officials in any sport.

But, officiating organizations are stuck with the problem, and I encourage anyone's efforts to recruit officials of both genders. I would start with thinking about my own motivations and see if they are gender-specific. There are books on the psychology of officiating, don't know any exact title, but try searching a book web site. Also, find out if the quitters left because of gender reasons or just because many new officials quit and don't use the word "girl".