| Since the late 1960's the number of women entering or returning to the workforce has increased significantly and this growth continued through the following decades. A consequence was that volunteerism suffered from the diminished availability of their former "backbone" of educated, middle class women who did not work outside the home.;Given the significant role volunteering has played in the lives of women, and continues to play to a different degree, there is a relatively paucity of in-depth work in this field, except for two major studies by Kaminer (1984) and Daniels (1988). There has not been a detailed, specific examination of the contribution volunteering may have made to women's development in the context of a theory such as perceived self-efficacy and its implications for potential transferability to the workplace and other settings.;This study was focused on one specific advocacy and educational volunteer organization, the League of Women Voters. The core group studied was comprised of 22 League leaders, covering a broad age range, various locations and League chapter sizes. The study employed in-depth taped and transcribed interviews proceeded by a Pre-Interview Questionnaire. The interviews were supplemented by participant observation at a variety of meetings and two conventions.;The leader's stories followed various patterns of League experience in relation to the rest of their lives and paid careers, where the latter was relevant, and they were categorized by career pattern. All the leaders in the various career patterns gained from League experience, but those who benefited substantially from transferability to the workplace were those in the group who changed or significantly enhanced their role in their field after League membership, the latter usually beginning during a break while raising children. Additionally, all of the leaders gained skills, competencies, knowledge and assumed various roles following a process which closely reflected three of Bandura's four sources of perceived self-efficacy. This is an area which is rich for further exploration in various regards, some of which are delineated in Recommendations for Future Research. |
