现在，作为一名学生，我已经在上海参加了两年的linkages志愿者服务项目。Linkages是一个通过教育流动儿童从而使他们更好地成长和发展的志愿者项目。在这两年里，我发现所有的志愿者，除了一个男孩，都是女孩。确凿的证据告诉我，我的志愿服务项目中存在性别失衡。我真的感到很无奈 ，因为这与我所坚信的性别平等的观念背道而驰。 

    那么，为什么会发生这种情况呢?为什么女孩想做志 愿者而男孩不想?

    为了找到答案，我上网搜索。然后，在一个网站上，我发现了一个类似的案例。当美国一家名为YCore的志愿者组织向数量相当的男性和女性发送招聘信时，95%的回复来自女性(“Why Don't Men”)。 

    志愿服务中的性别失衡并非偶然现象。2014年的一项调查显示，女性志愿服务的可能性比男性高30% (“Why Don't Men”)。调查结果令人吃惊，但在我的预料之中。虽然我对美国社会的情况不是很清楚，但我知道，或者能感觉到，在中国社会，女性被“要求”去做义工，而男性则不是。如果一个女人拒绝参加任何形式的志愿者工作，别人对她的印象就会受到负面影响。然而，如果一个男人处于同样的处境，那么其他人对他的印象基本上不会像对那个女人那样受到那么大的影响。  

    我在我的网站上发现，这种现象是由我们长期的父权文化造成的。在我们的社会中，男人被赋予了赚钱的角色，而女人通常被赋予了养育孩子和照顾家庭的角色。因此，当参加志愿工作时，女性更有可能参与(“Why Don't Men”)。

    我还采访了我们志愿者小组中唯一的男孩，关于他对这个问题的看法。我问他作为志愿者服务中唯一的男孩是什么感觉。他说，其实他并没有因为自己是唯一的男孩而受到影响，因为志愿者活动是他想做的。然而，他也承认，我们志愿者项目中的活动有点女性化，这可能是导致男孩参加人数减少的一个因素。此外，他也认为社会影响了男孩们少参加志愿者项目的情况。

    在对这个男孩采访过后，我对志愿者项目的课程做了一些改变，希望更多的男孩能参与到我们的项目中来。在我看来，做志愿者工作是每个人都应该拥有的宝贵经历。男孩不应该受到社会上对性别观念的影响，他们应该培养帮助他人的意愿，因为这可以让世界变得更美好。

    此外，我希望通过写这篇文章来分享我对志愿者项目中性别失衡的看法，让更多的男孩可以考虑参加志愿者项目，让更多的人可以注意到这个常见但有时被忽视的问题。

Gender Imbalance in Volunteer Service

    I’ve joined linkages—a volunteer service program in Shanghaifor two years, and during these two years, I’ve consistently took part in linkagesactivities, which is about teaching migrant children for their better growthand development. What I found, in the two years, is that all of the volunteers,except one boy, are girls. The hard evidence tell me that gender imbalanceexist in my volunteer service program. I am really upset about it because thisis opposite to my gender equality belief. 

    Then, why , what causes this to happen? Why girls want to bevolunteers but boys do not?

    I searched on the Internet to find the answer for me. Then, on one website, I found a similar case. When an volunteer organization in the U.S. named YCore sent out its recruitment letters to a balanced number of men and women, 95% of the response were from women (“Why Don't Men”). 

    Gender imbalance in volunteer service is not an occasional problem. A 2014 survey showed that women are 30% more likely to volunteer than men (“Why Don't Men”). The result of the survey was astonishing, but within myexpectation. Even though I am not sure about the case in the U.S. society, Iknow, or can feel that in Chinese society, women are kind of “required” to dovolunteer work but men are not. If a woman refuse to participate in any form ofvolunteer work, others’ impression towards her are negatively affected.However, if a man is in the same situation, then others’ impression towards himwill basically not be affected as much as it is for that woman.  

    This phenomenon, based on the website I found, is caused by our long-time patriarchal culture. In our society, men are given a role of making money while women are generally given a role of raising babies and taking care of the family. Thus, when coming to volunteer work, women are more likely to participate (“Why Don't Men”).

    I also interviewed one of the linkages members who is theonly boy in our volunteer group about his opinions towards this problem. I askedhim what he felt about being the only boy in the volunteer service. He saidthat it was actually OK for him to be in the volunteer service because this waswhat he wanted to do. However, he did acknowledge that the activities in ourvolunteer program was a little bit feminine, and this might be a factor thatcaused less boys to join. Besides, he agreed that the society had influencedthe boys to participate less in the volunteer program.

    After conducting this interview with this boy, I did somechanges to the course in the volunteer program, hoping that more boys canparticipate in our program. Doing volunteer work, from my perspective, is aprecious experience that everyone should have. Boys should not be so affectedby gender norms and they should develop the will to help others, which can makethe world better.

    Additionally, I hope that I can share my thoughts aboutgender imbalance in volunteer program by writing this article so that more boyscan consider participating volunteer programs and more people can notice thiscommon but sometimes ignored problem.

    “Why Don't Men Volunteer as Much as Women?” Priceonomics, priceonomics.com/the-altruism-gender-gap/.