Abstract
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.
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A fascinating account of the experiences of women in the music industry by Steward and Garratt includes interviews with female vocalists ranging from Helen Shapiro to Elkie Brooks, most of them expressing great unease with the narrow stereotypes to which they were expected to conform. As Steward and Garratt comment Women’s bodies are used to sell their own music in the same way they are used to sell records made by men, guitars, hi-fi speakers, and any other consumer item. (1984, p. 56)
An excellent early example of this approach is Oakley’s study of housewives (Oakley, 1974b) which, although concerned primarily with documenting women’s accounts of the management and experience of housework, provides insights into the nature of the constraints which prevent women with young children from enjoying leisure, and includes a comprehensive critique of sexism in sociology texts.
We recognise that race is an important source of inequality, and regret the ethnocentric focus of our current study of leisure and gender, based as it is on a sample of predominantly white women drawn from the electoral roll.
A full examination of the ways in which ideology ‘works’ to reproduce existing social inequalities is beyond the scope of this chapter. A useful discussion appears in Barrett (1980).
Whilst originally developed by Antonio Gramsci to theorise the nature of class relations, hegemony has more recently been used by feminists to describe gender relations. Hegemony refers to the process whereby inequalities are maintained through legitimation rather than through enforcement or coercion. It involves the ‘organisation of popular consent to the views of the dominant class’ (Barrett, 1980). We are using it here in a similar way to Bland et al. (1978) who state: ‘We use the concept for two reasons: it “includes the ideological but cannot be reduced to that level” … it also involves the notion of “consent” to domination by the subordinate group’.
See, for example, Dobash and Dobash (1980) on the rigid patriarchy of the early Romans.
Where not otherwise referenced quotes are from on-going work in our current study of leisure and gender jointly funded by the Sports Council and the Economic and Social Research Council.
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© 1987 British Sociological Association
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Green, E., Hebron, S., Woodward, D. (1987). Women, Leisure and Social Control. In: Hanmer, J., Maynard, M. (eds) Women, Violence and Social Control. Explorations in Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-18592-4_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-18592-4_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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