Gender, Leisure, and Constraint: Towards a Framework for the Analysis of Women's Leisure

Abstract

This paper examines three approaches to the analysis of women's leisure, and discusses ways in which the ideas and concepts from these different approaches can be integrated. The first and dominant approach to understanding women's leisure is analysis of how leisure is constrained. From this perspective leisure is conceptualized as a desirable experience, and constraints to leisure participation are seen to arise out of structured gender relations. The second approach focuses on how leisure activities themselves, especially stereotypical activities, can be constraining through the reinforcement of traditional gender relations. A third, emerging approach examines ways in which women's leisure can be seen to have the potential for resistance to societally imposed constraints. Some guiding principles are suggested for the integration of these three approaches into a broader conceptual framework. Such a framework allows for both the diversity of women's experiences, and the contradictions inherent in women's leisure, to be taken into account.