Diana Woodward

Women, Leisure and Social Control

At first sight, the areas of violence and social control, on the one hand, and leisure on the other seem to occupy opposite ends of the continuum of freedom and extreme coercion. Closer examination through feminist analysis, however, reveals that the area which is portrayed by capitalist ideology as representing the ultimate in freedom from constraint, that is, leisure, is actually one of the areas where women’s behaviour is regulated most closely. The concern in this chapter is with the particular forms which this regulation takes, that is, with how social control is experienced by women in their daily lives. This entails an analysis not only of the constraints on opportunities for free time and access to leisure activities experienced at an individual level, but also of the structural context within which choices, decisions and negotiations are worked out.

Sex equality in the financial services sector in Turkey and the UK

In the UK and other western countries the financial services sector is seen as offering women better career prospects than most other sectors. Unprecedented numbers of well‐qualified young women are now achieving promotion to first‐line and middle management positions. Companies are represented as progressive employers, committed to promoting equal opportunities. However, a cross‐cultural study of three Turkish and six UK banks and high street financial organisations explores how organisational ideologies and cultures operate to perpetuate inequality, based on managers’ gendered conceptions of “the ideal worker”. Favoured staff were identified, sponsored, promoted and rewarded, often based on their personal affinity with senior managers rather than objective criteria. This distinction between favour and exclusion operates not only along the traditional lines of gender, class, age, sexual orientation, religion and physical ability, but also along the new dimensions of marriage, networking, safety, mobility and space. Despite local and cross‐cultural differences in the significance of these factors, the cumulative disadvantage suffered by women managers and supervisors in both countries was remarkably similar.

Leading the way: women’s experiences as sports coaches

Explores women’s under‐representation from sports coaching roles in general and from high status roles in particular. In‐depth interviews were carried out with 20 women who coached one of the following sports: cricket, gymnastics, netball, squash or swimming. A purposive sample ensured that the coaches reflected different levels of commitment to coaching. Witz’s model of occupational closure, used by her to analyse the medical profession, provided the basis for analysing the women’s experiences as coaches. Analysis of the interview data revealed that exclusionary and demarcationary strategies operated to limit women’s access to coaching roles. Such strategies included gendering the coaching role as a masculine role and closing access to networks of coaches. Women challenged such strategies through inclusionary and dual closure strategies by drawing on their coaching qualifications, their experiences as competitive athletes and the successes of the athletes whom they coached.

Sell-out or challenge? The contradiction of a masters in women's studies

Abstract This is an account of planning a part-time Masters degree in Womens Studies at a British Polytechnic. We explain how we obtained approval from the necessary authorities for the course, and discuss the conflict between—on the one hand—the need to conform to these institutional procedures in order to get the course established, and—on the other hand—the desire to keep faith with the political origins of Womens Studies in the Womens Movement. We discuss a number of major issues which have confronted the members of the committee responsible for planning this course including the struggle to demonstrate within the college the academic legitimacy of WS; decisions about what kind of course to offer students—a multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary curriculum, with or without optional elements—and how to defend these proposals during the lengthy process of seeking formal approval; the institutional politics of launching the course; and anticipated problems associated with the eventual teaching of the course.

Women’s leisure today

What little we know about women’s leisure indicates that the activities women enjoy and do most frequently in and around the home are not much different from men’s preferred forms of leisure. The 1983 General Household Survey, a British government publication based on interviews with a representative national sample of over 10,000 women and nearly 9,000 men aged over 16, showed that 98 per cent of both the women and the men had watched television in the month period to the interview; 86 per cent of the women and 87 per cent of the men had listened to the radio; and nearly two-thirds of the respondents — 62 per cent of the women and 65 per cent of the men — had played records or tapes at home (see Table 4.10). Gender differences were more marked for reading, gardening, do-it-yourself, sewing and knitting: more women do reading and crafts, while more men do DIY and gardening. Another national survey of 2,000 people aged 15 and over, also carried out in 1983, likewise found that watching television and listening to the radio and music were the three most popular leisure activities, and were done by equal numbers of men and women (NOP, 1983). Again, reading books, knitting and sewing were more popular with women, and gardening and do-it-yourself were for men, with at least 20 per cent more of one gender than the other doing each of these activities.

Capitalism, patriarchy and ideologies of leisure

This chapter builds on the theoretical premises outlined in the previous chapter and attempts to move towards an understanding of leisure from a socialist feminist perspective. It is informed by theoretical writings in the area of cultural studies rather than by more conventional work in leisure studies. We find the critical approach to the analysis of cultural forms which is characteristic of British cultural studies to be useful in highlighting the problematic nature of our taken-for-granted assumptions about leisure.

The process of social control in public and private spheres

We have argued earlier that women share a subordinate social position which is mediated by divisions of social class and race, as well as by divisions of age and marital status. It is important to analyse the components of the process of social control which maintain that subordination. Gender is clearly a key dimension in understanding the form and content of leisure in capitalist society, and the specific experiences of individuals in relation to leisure activities and attitudes in the ‘public’ and ‘private’ spheres. At the level of ideology, sexuality is a central factor in representations of women both pursuing their own leisure interests and servicing the leisure of others. Sexuality is also a crucial element in representations of appropriate ways for women and men to spend time, which assumes particular significance in an examination of pub cultures and drinking behaviour.

Self-help and good practice: the struggle for women’s leisure

Earlier chapters have analysed the constraints on women’s access to free time and limitations on the range of choices available to them about how to spend it - limitations which derive from their structural position in the family and the labour market, and the associated norms and ideologies about ‘a woman’s place’. Inequalities in childcare and the domestic division of labour, as well as in wage rates for women’s and men’s work, and in the distribution of personal spending money within the household, all contribute to women’s recreational disadvantage. This is reflected to some extent in gender differences in leisure within the home: although the most popular activities such as watching television, listening to music and reading are done by approximately the same proportions of women and men, those which cost money for equipment and require space and time free from interruptions (such as hobbies, crafts and arts) are done by four times as many men as women (see Chapter 4). Men have more leisure time at their disposal than women (Shaw, 1986), women’s leisure is much more adversely affected than men’s by marriage and parenthood, and the ‘quality’ of their free time is likely to be reduced by domestic commitments (Green, Hebron and Woodward, 1987b). Gender differences are much more marked for leisure activities away from home, with many more men than women regularly ‘going out for a drink’ or playing sport. The 1983 General Household Survey found that two-thirds of men, compared with under half the women, had been out for a drink in the preceding month. Well over half the men but barely a third of the women had taken part in any sport in the same period (GHS, 1985).

A social history of women’s leisure

A historical perspective is essential for those of us who are interested in exploring and understanding women’s lives, given that leisure does not exist in a vacuum, but is shaped by the broader social ]context. As Rojek (1985), among others, has pointed out, leisure should be seen as a part of dynamic relations which change over time. It comes as little surprise, then, to find that the social and economic changes that have taken place in Britain from the eighteenth century on have had clear implications for the way in which leisure is currently shaped and perceived. This applies not only to the leisure ‘choices’ that are possible in terms of the kind of provision and the material resources available to individuals or groups, but also to our broader definitions of leisure and our ideas about what leisure is, or ought to be.

Work and Leisure

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