Gender segregation in civic life - women's and men's involvement in voluntary associations

The pervasive persistence of gender segregation has been documented in a myriad of social
settings, implying that women and men primarily encounter peers of their own gender in daily
life. While voluntary associations are often praised for their ability to bridge other social
divides, previous research indicates substantive gender disparities in voluntary involvement.
Yet, we still know relatively little about the extent and origins of gender segregation in civic
life. In this article, we study gender homophily in voluntary involvement and examine how
structural features of friendship networks and traditional gender norms bring about gender
segregation. Employing data from a German panel study (SC6-NEPS), we analyze crosssectional patterns of gender segregation and run multinomial and binary logistic regressions to
model joining and quitting transitions. Our results indicate substantive gender segregation
across and within types of voluntary associations. The overall gender segregation is driven by
homophilous transitions into associational contexts, not by selective quitting decisions. Gender
segregated friendship networks partially explain the tendency to join organizations dominated
by one’s own gender. Traditional gender norms are associated with more homophilous joining
transitions among men, but not among women. Overall, these findings imply that civic life
perpetuates the structural significance of gender.