Men and Volunteering

I was at a (church) Readers lunch today at which I was the only male and during our discussion we talked about ratios of men and women as leaders/volunteers in church events. Last night I attended a service rota planning event where (apart from the vicar) I was again the only male. I've just checked our list of volunteers to do Bible readings and that's around 75% female, our church is fairly well gender balanced (a slight bias towards women).

I also thought back to last weekend when - as a followup event to Macc Pride at which I was a steward (again a volunteer role) - there was a pub afternoon for feedback and news. When I arrived there were around 15 women and me(!) a few more women arrived before there was just one other male! I've also inspected the rota for St Michael's which opened its doors that day to welcome folk who wanted a break from the noisyness of the event (and some children's activities). Yes you guessed, again all female!

So more (on this limited set of data points) than just a church problem? I go to some geeky voluntary events which tend to be fairly male - but that's on a pretty male concentrated population to draw on? Is it that men are too busy wanting to be the main wage earner even when they're retired?