This article explores the idea that women in western societies, including those with male partners and/or children, may perceive and use their leisure, including holidays, to disrupt intensified life styles, or to interrupt the domination of clock time and work routines. Recent trends in research and theorizing on women's leisure, including post-structuralist and postmodernist critiques of such leisure, are examined, particularly for their theoretical and methodological sensitivity to, and use of, concepts of time. It is argued that leisure can take many different forms, depending on the social class, paid work, cultural capital and household situation of individual women. However, since much leisure may itself be subject to time intensification, holidays, including those taken at home, may provide a way in which women can `slow down' and escape for a while from hectic lives. Using recent pilot research work, the article also suggests ways in which these ideas could be more extensively researched.
Adam, B.
(1995) Timewatch: The Social Analysis of Time. Cambridge: Polity Press.
2.
Adkins, L.
(1995) Gendered Work: Sexuality, Family and the Labour Market. Buckingham: Open University Press.
3.
Bourdieu, P.
(1987a) Distinction. London: Routledge.
4.
Bourdieu, P.
(1987b) `What Makes a Social Class? On the Theoretical and Practical Existence of Groups', Berkeley Journal of SociologyXXXII: 1-17.
5.
Bourdieu, P.
(1993) Sociology in Question. London: Sage.
6.
Burns, T.
(1973) `Leisure in Industrial Society', in M. Smith, S. Parker and C. Smith (eds) Leisure in Industrial Society. London: Allen Lane.
7.
Central Statistical Office
(1994) Social Trends. London: HMSO.
8.
Davies, K.
(1990) Women, Time and the Weaving of the Strands of Everyday Life. London: Avebury.
9.
Deem, R.
(1986) All Work and No Play: The Sociology of Women and Leisure. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
10.
Deem, R.
and Tinkler, P. (1995) `Women, the City and Holidays', paper presented to annual conference of the British Sociological Association, Leicester.
11.
Elias, N.
(1992) Time: An Essay. Oxford: Blackwell.
12.
Enloe, C.
(1989) Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics. London: Pandora.
13.
Finch, J.
and Mason, J. (1993) Negotiating Family Responsibilities. London: Routledge.
14.
Friedland, R.
and Boden, D. (eds) (1994) Space, Time and Modernity. London and Berkeley: University of California Press.
15.
Goodnow, J. J.
and Bowes, J. (1994) Men, Women and Household Work. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
16.
Graham, H.
(1984) Women, Health and the Family. London: Harvester.
17.
Gray, A.
(1992) Video Playtime: The Gendering of a Leisure Technology. London: Routledge.
18.
Green, E.
, Hebron, S. and Woodward, D. (1990) Women's Leisure, What Leisure. London, Macmillan.
19.
Gregory, S.
(1982) `Women Among Others: Another View', Leisure Studies1 (1): 47-52.
20.
Gregson, N.
and Lowe, M. (1993) `Renegotiating the domestic division of labour? A study of dual career households in north east and south east England', Sociological Review41 (3): 475-505.
21.
Gregson, N.
and Lowe, M. (1994a) Servicing the Middle Classes. London: Routledge.
22.
Gregson, N.
and Lowe, M. (1994b) `Waged Domestic Labour and the Renegotiation of the Domestic Division of Labour within Dual Career Households', Sociology28 (1): 55-78.
23.
Hewitt, P.
(1993) About Time: The Revolution in Work and Family Life. London: Rivers Oram Press.
24.
Kenway, J.
(1993) `Non-Traditional Pathways: Are They the Way to the Future?' in J. Kenway and J. Blackmore (eds) Gender Matters in Educational Administration and Policy, pp. 81-100. London: Falmer.
25.
Lash, S.
and Urry, J. (1994) Economies of Signs and Space. London: Sage.
26.
Le Feuvre, N.
(1994) `Leisure, Work and Gender: A Sociological Study of Women's Time in France'. Time & Society3 (2): 151-178.
27.
Lee, W.
(1991) `Prostitution and Tourism in South East Asia' in N. Redclift and M. T. Sinclair, (eds) Working Women: International Perspectives on Labour and Gender Ideology. London: Routledge.
28.
Linder, S. B.
(1970) The Harried Leisure Class. New York: Columbia University Press.
29.
Martens, L.
and Warde, A. (1995) `Urban Pleasures? Eating Out in a Northern City', paper presented to annual conference of the British Sociological Association, University of Leicester.
30.
Massey, D.
(1994) Space, Place and Gender. Cambridge: Polity Press.
31.
Modleski, T.
(1983) `The Rhythms of Reception: Daytime Television and Women's Work', in E. A. Kaplan (ed.) Regarding Television. Los Angeles: American Film Institute.
32.
Morris, L.
(1995) Social Divisions: Economic Decline and Social Structural Change. London: UCL Press.
33.
Mulgan, G.
and Wilkinson, H. (1995) `Well Being and Time', in The Time Squeeze, pp. 2-11. London, Demos.
34.
Nicholson, L.
(ed.) (1990) Feminism/Postmodernism. London: Routledge.
35.
Pahl, R.
(1995) `Finding Time to Live', in The Time Squeeze, pp. 2-11. London: Demos.
36.
Parker, S.
(1976) The Sociology of Leisure. London: Allen & Unwin.
37.
Redclift, N.
and Sinclair, M. T. (eds) (1991) Working Women: International Perspectives on Labour and Gender Ideology. London: Routledge.
38.
Scraton, S.
(1994) `The Changing World of Women and Leisure: Postfeminism and Leisure', Leisure Studies13 (4): 249-261.
39.
Shaw, S.
(1991) `Women's Leisure Time: Using Time Budget Data to Examine Current Trends in Future Predictions', Leisure Studies10(2): 171-181.
40.
Shaw, S.
, de la Durantaye, C. V. and Bouillin-Dartevelle, R. (1992) `Feminist Perspectives on Leisure (whole issue)'. Loisir et Société15 (2).
41.
Shields, R.
(1991) Places on the Margin. London: Routledge.
42.
Thompson, E. P.
(1967) `Time, Work Discipline and Industrial Capitalism', Past and Present38 (December): 52-97.
43.
Truong, T.
(1990) Sex, Money and Morality: Prostitution and Tourism in South East Asia. London: Zed Books.
44.
Tyrell, B.
(1995) `Time in Our Lives: Facts and Analysis on the 90s', in The Time Squeeze. London: Demos.
45.
Tysoe, M.
(1985) `Tourism is Good for You', New Society (16th August): 228-230.
46.
Urry, J.
(1990). The Tourist Gaze. London: Sage.
47.
Urry, J.
(1994a) `Time, Leisure and Social Identity'. Time & Society3 (2): 131-149.
48.
Urry, J.
(1994b) `Cultural Change and Contemporary Tourism', Leisure Studies13 (4): 233-238.
49.
Wearing, B.
(1992) `Leisure and Women's Identity in Late Adolescence', Loisir et Société15 (1): 323-342.
50.
Weedon, C.
(1987) Feminist Practice and Post-structuralist Theory. Oxford: Blackwell.
51.
Wimbush, E.
and Talbot, M. (eds) (1988) Relative Freedoms: Women and Leisure. Milton Keynes: Open University.
52.
Young, M.
(1995) `Hurry Sickness - a Major Disease of Modern Society?' paper presented to the annual conference of the Association for the Social Studies of Time, Dartington, Devon.
