The Sociology of Women's Leisure and Physical Recreation: Constraints and Opportunities

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Abstract
This study of women's leisure experiences is based on a random survey of 700 Sheffield women, supplemented by interviews with groups of women and their men partners. Both women's and men's access to free time and leisure opportunities are structured by similar factors, such as their work and domestic situation, social class and income level, age and ethnic group. However in societies where child care and domestic work are primarily done by women, gender has a major influence on leisure behaviour. Women typically earn lower incomes than men or may be financially dependent, but access to personal spending money is a less significant constraint than prevailing norms about appropriate behaviour for women. These influence perceptions of women's entitlement to time and resources for leisure, and how it may be spent. One third of Sheffield women regularly engage in physical recreation, the same figure as the national average. These women differ from others in predictable respects (for example in terms of age group, marital status and stage in the life course, and household income), and the profile of typical participants varies between sports. Participation in leisure away from home was influenced by dominant ideologies about 'a woman's place', forming the context for negotiations with partners and decisions about appropriate activities, venues and companions, their cost and timing, as well as issues such as transportation and personal safety.

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