Time After Work: Constraints on the Leisure of Working Women

The work-leisure relationship of three occupational groups of working women was studied using a conceptual scheme derived from the work of Parker (1983). Parker's research has been somewhat of a lightening rod for the feminist critique of androcentrism in mainstream leisure research. The attempt here was to modify Parker's conceptual scheme to be reflective of the organization of women's work, family and leisure lives. Five-hundred and forty-eight full-time employees of a major teaching and research university, in the employment categories of faculty members, nurses, and Administrative Assistants (and Management Services Officers) completed a questionnaire on their work attitudes and behaviour, leisure activities and preferences, and family commitments. A preliminary analysis indicated that the model of work-leisure relationships was not wholely adequate to explain the work-leisure relationship for these groups of working women. A reanalysis of several variables in the data set using multiple regression techniques revealed that hours on the job had virtually no explanatory value in understanding the differences in the leisure time of the three groups, but that bringing work home, devoting time to housework, and household size accounted for 17.5% of the variance in the amount of leisure time available to these groups of working women. It was concluded that the organization of women's working day to include household obligations affects their patterns of leisure time and activity. The conventional male model of the work- leisure relationship cannot account for how women manage both the work and family spheres and what this does for her leisure time. Working women's patterns of leisure time and activity are sufficiently different from those of previously studied working men to warrant close attention to feminist critiques of leisure research in our agenda for studying contemporary adults.