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RURAL WOMEN’S EXPERIENCE OF LEISURE IN A GENDERED WORLD: A SOUTH ASIAN PERSPECTIVE
Corresponding Author(s) : Muhammad Farhat Hayat
Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews,
Vol. 9 No. 3 (2021): May
Abstract
Purpose of the Study: The main objective of this paper was to synthesize and analysing the existing knowledge to evaluate the effect of public space on women’s leisure. Another major objective was to check the role of gender in determining leisure activities and opportunities for rural women. The current study focuses on South Asian rural women concerning Pakistani society.
Methodology: For the present study, the researchers analysed and reviewed articles from different databases like Google Scholar, Taylor, and Francis, Springer, and Sage publication journals from 2000 to 2020.
Principal Findings: After reviewing the various studies conducted in the 21st century, the results showed that most rural women are not allowed to do leisure in public space, and they have few opportunities to do it inside the boundary of the household. The public space is used predominantly by males for their leisure. Family pressure and patriarchal social norms also hampered women’s desire to claim public space for leisure activities.
Application of the Study: This study concluded that the leisure opportunities for rural women are less as compared to their counterparts. Public space is vital and plays a pivotal role in shaping and determining leisure activities for both genders. This study also raised certain questions which are thought-provoking and can be crucial for future investigation.
Novelty/Originality: this study is a unique effort to discuss rural women’s leisure from a South Asian Perspective. It also gives insight with the support of most recent data regarding rural women’s leisure and its relationship with the social structure of society.
Keywords
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- Abbott-Chapman, J., & Robertson, M. (2001). Youth, Leisure and Home: Space, Place and Identity. Loisir et Société / Society and Leisure, 24(2), 485-506. https://doi.org/10.7202/000192ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/000192ar
- Adam, I. (2014). Gendered perspectives of leisure patterns and constraints of university students in Ghana. Leisure/Loisir, 38(2), 181-198. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2014.985475
- Aitchison, C. (1999). New cultural geographies: the spatiality of leisure, gender and sexuality AU - Aitchison, Cara. Leisure Studies, 18(1), 19-39. https://doi.org/10.1080/026143699375032 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/026143699375032
- Aitchison, C. (2000). Poststructural feminist theories of representing Others: a response to the ‘crisis’ in leisure studies' discourse. Leisure Studies, 19(3), 127-144. https://doi.org/10.1080/02614360050023044 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02614360050023044
- Ali, R., Ahmad, F., & Batool, S. (2016). Examining Empowerment: Narratives of ‘Homemakers’ from Rural Pakistan. International Journal of Gender and Women’s Studies, 4(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.15640/ijgws.v4n1a5
- Amsden, B., & McEntee, J. (2011). Agrileisure: Re-imagining the relationship between agriculture, leisure, and social change. Leisure/Loisir, 35(1), 37-48. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2011.549194
- Bagheri, N. (2014). Mapping women in Tehran's public spaces: a geo-visualization perspective. Gender, place & culture, 21(10), 1285-1301. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2013.817972 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2013.817972
- Bhattacharya, S. (2014). Status of women in Pakistan. Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, 51(1).
- Bimla, & Dilbaghi, M. N. (2007). Features of the leisure of farm women of Haryana State (India). World Leisure Journal, 49(3), 166-170. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/04419057.2007.9674503
- Brown, Brown, W. J., Miller, Y. D., & Hansen, V. (2001). Perceived constraints and social support for active leisure among mothers with young children. Leisure Sciences, 23(3), 131-144. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/014904001316896837
- Craike, M. J., Symons, C., Eime, R. M., Payne, W. R., & Harvey, J. T. (2011). A comparative study of factors influencing participation in sport and physical activity for metropolitan and rural female adolescents. Annals of Leisure Research, 14(4), 355-368. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/11745398.2011.639405
- Du, J. (2008). Women's leisure as reproduction and resistance. Affilia, 23(2), 179-189. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0886109908314319
- Gulshetty, B. (2007). Leisure and Rural Women: a Study of a Self-help Group in a Village in Karnataka. World Leisure Journal, 49(2), 83-87. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/04419057.2007.9674488
- Gürbüz, B., & Henderson, K. A. (2014). Leisure activity preferences and constraints: Perspectives from Turkey. World Leisure Journal, 56(4), 300-316. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/16078055.2014.958195
- Hassan, S. M., & Azman, A. (2014). Visible work, invisible workers: A study of women home-based workers in Pakistan. International Journal of Social Work and Human Services Practice, 2(2), 48-55. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13189/ijrh.2014.020207
- Henderson, K. (2013). UNICEF and UN women's evidence gathering to address inequalities in the post-2015 global development agenda: leisure as a site of inequality and a means of addressing inequality AU - Aitchison, Cara. World Leisure Journal, 55(2), 193-203. https://doi.org/10.1080/04419057.2013.782739 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/04419057.2013.782739
- Hindley, D. (2020). “More Than Just a Run in the Parkâ€: An Exploration of Parkrun as a Shared Leisure Space. Leisure Sciences, 42(1), 85-105. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2017.1410741 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2017.1410741
- Höglhammer, A., Muhar, A., Stokowski, P., Schauppenlehner, T., & Eder, R. (2018). Factors affecting adolescents’ use of urban public spaces in their leisure time: an exploratory study from the city of Vienna. Local Environment, 23(8), 814-829. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2018.1477744 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2018.1477744
- Holdsworth, C., Laverty, L., & Robinson, J. (2017). Gender differences in teenage alcohol consumption and spatial practices. Children's Geographies, 15(6), 741-753. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2017.1334111 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2017.1334111
- Ishaq, W., & Memon, S. Q. (2017). Roles of women in agriculture: A case study of rural Lahore, Pakistan. Journal of Rural Development and Agriculture, 1(1), 1-11.
- Jackson, E. L., & Henderson, K. A. (1995). Genderâ€based analysis of leisure constraints. Leisure Sciences, 17(1), 31-51. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01490409509513241
- James, K. (2001). “I Just Gotta Have My Own Space!â€: The Bedroom as a Leisure Site for Adolescent Girls. Journal of Leisure Research, 33(1), 71-90. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.2001.11949931 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.2001.11949931
- Jin, X., & Whitson, R. (2014). Young women and public leisure spaces in contemporary Beijing: Recreating (with) gender, tradition, and place. Social & Cultural Geography, 15(4), 449-469. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2014.894115
- Johnson, C. Y., Bowker, J. M., & Cordell, H. K. (2001). Outdoor recreation constraints: An examination of race, gender, and rural dwelling. Southern rural sociology, 17(1), 111-133.
- Khan, S. (2011). Gendered leisure: are women more constrained in travel for leisure? Tourismos, 6(1).
- Kim, J.-H., Brown, S. L., & Yang, H. (2018). Types of leisure, leisure motivation, and well-being in university students. World Leisure Journal, 61(1), 1-15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/16078055.2018.1545691
- Lewis, S. T., & Johnson, C. W. (2011). “But it's not that easyâ€: negotiating (trans)gender expressions in leisure spaces. Leisure/Loisir, 35(2), 115-132. https://doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2011.567062 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2011.567062
- Maharjan, A., Bauer, S., & Knerr, B. (2012). Do rural women who stay behind benefit from male out-migration? A case study in the hills of Nepal. Gender, Technology and Development, 16(1), 95-123. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/097185241101600105
- Mai, S., & Hao, X. (2020). Older women’s identity reconstruction in leisure spaces: a case of Guangzhou, China. Leisure Studies, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2020.1735491 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2020.1735491
- Masood, A. (2018). Negotiating mobility in gendered spaces: a case of Pakistani women doctors. Gender, place & culture, 25(2), 188-206. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2017.1418736
- Mazumdar, S., & Mazumdar, S. (2001). Rethinking public and private space: Religion and women in Muslim society. Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, 18(4), 302-324.
- Mughal, M. A. (2017). Time in Flux: Daily and Weekly Rhythms in Rural Pakistan. Asian Ethnology, 76(2), 261-287.
- Mughal, M. A. Z. (2014). Time, Space and Social Change in Rural Pakistan: An Ethnographic Study of Jhokwala Village, Lodhran District Durham University].
- Norman, M. E., Gerarda Power, N., & Dupré, K. (2011). Playing in the woods: Youth, leisure and the performance of gender relations in rural Newfoundland. Annals of Leisure Research, 14(2-3), 155-175. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/11745398.2011.615713
- Paul, T. (2017). Mapping gendered spatialities in leisure: the case of new consumption spaces in the city of Kolkata. Contemporary South Asia, 25(4), 380-398. https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2017.1397601 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2017.1397601
- Peters, K. (2010). Being Together in Urban Parks: Connecting Public Space, Leisure, and Diversity. Leisure sciences, 32(5), 418-433. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2010.510987 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2010.510987
- Shaw, S. M. (1994). Gender, Leisure, and Constraint: Towards a Framework for the Analysis of Women's Leisure. Journal of Leisure Research, 26(1), 8-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.1994.11969941 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.1994.11969941
- Shaw, S. M. (1999). Gender and leisure. Leisure studies: Prospects for the twenty-first century, 271-281.
- Stebbins, R. A. (2017). Leisure’s Legacy: Challenging the Common Sense View of Free Time. Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59794-2_1
- Taylor, J. (2003). Women's leisure activities, their social stereotypes and some implications for identity. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 66(4), 151-158. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/030802260306600404
- Tucker, F., & Matthews, H. (2001). ‘They don’t like girls hanging around there’: conflicts over recreational space in rural Northamptonshire. Area, 33(2), 161-168. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-4762.00019
- Veal, A. (2015). Human rights, leisure and leisure studies. World Leisure Journal, 57(4), 249-272. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/16078055.2015.1081271
- Wagner, L., & Peters, K. (2014). Feeling at home in public: diasporic Moroccan women negotiating leisure in Morocco and the Netherlands. Gender, place & culture, 21(4), 415-430. https://doi.org/10.10 80/0966369X.2013.793658 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2013.793658
- Watson, B., & Ratna, A. (2011). Bollywood in the park: thinking intersectionally about public leisure space. Leisure/Loisir, 35(1), 71-86. https://doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2011.549198 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2011.549198
- Wronska, A. (2018). The Place of Women in Public Space: A Case Study of Street Harassment in Bangladesh (Publication Number 8945534) LUND UNIVERSITY]. LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES.
- Yerkes, M. A., Roeters, A., & Baxter, J. (2018). Gender differences in the quality of leisure: a cross-national comparison. Community, Work & Family, 23(4), 1-18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2018.1528968
- Zubair, S. (2003). Literacies across generations: Women’s religious and secular identities in Siraiki villages. South Asia Research, 23(2), 135-151. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0262728003232002
References
Abbott-Chapman, J., & Robertson, M. (2001). Youth, Leisure and Home: Space, Place and Identity. Loisir et Société / Society and Leisure, 24(2), 485-506. https://doi.org/10.7202/000192ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/000192ar
Adam, I. (2014). Gendered perspectives of leisure patterns and constraints of university students in Ghana. Leisure/Loisir, 38(2), 181-198. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2014.985475
Aitchison, C. (1999). New cultural geographies: the spatiality of leisure, gender and sexuality AU - Aitchison, Cara. Leisure Studies, 18(1), 19-39. https://doi.org/10.1080/026143699375032 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/026143699375032
Aitchison, C. (2000). Poststructural feminist theories of representing Others: a response to the ‘crisis’ in leisure studies' discourse. Leisure Studies, 19(3), 127-144. https://doi.org/10.1080/02614360050023044 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02614360050023044
Ali, R., Ahmad, F., & Batool, S. (2016). Examining Empowerment: Narratives of ‘Homemakers’ from Rural Pakistan. International Journal of Gender and Women’s Studies, 4(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.15640/ijgws.v4n1a5
Amsden, B., & McEntee, J. (2011). Agrileisure: Re-imagining the relationship between agriculture, leisure, and social change. Leisure/Loisir, 35(1), 37-48. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2011.549194
Bagheri, N. (2014). Mapping women in Tehran's public spaces: a geo-visualization perspective. Gender, place & culture, 21(10), 1285-1301. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2013.817972 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2013.817972
Bhattacharya, S. (2014). Status of women in Pakistan. Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, 51(1).
Bimla, & Dilbaghi, M. N. (2007). Features of the leisure of farm women of Haryana State (India). World Leisure Journal, 49(3), 166-170. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/04419057.2007.9674503
Brown, Brown, W. J., Miller, Y. D., & Hansen, V. (2001). Perceived constraints and social support for active leisure among mothers with young children. Leisure Sciences, 23(3), 131-144. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/014904001316896837
Craike, M. J., Symons, C., Eime, R. M., Payne, W. R., & Harvey, J. T. (2011). A comparative study of factors influencing participation in sport and physical activity for metropolitan and rural female adolescents. Annals of Leisure Research, 14(4), 355-368. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/11745398.2011.639405
Du, J. (2008). Women's leisure as reproduction and resistance. Affilia, 23(2), 179-189. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0886109908314319
Gulshetty, B. (2007). Leisure and Rural Women: a Study of a Self-help Group in a Village in Karnataka. World Leisure Journal, 49(2), 83-87. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/04419057.2007.9674488
Gürbüz, B., & Henderson, K. A. (2014). Leisure activity preferences and constraints: Perspectives from Turkey. World Leisure Journal, 56(4), 300-316. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/16078055.2014.958195
Hassan, S. M., & Azman, A. (2014). Visible work, invisible workers: A study of women home-based workers in Pakistan. International Journal of Social Work and Human Services Practice, 2(2), 48-55. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13189/ijrh.2014.020207
Henderson, K. (2013). UNICEF and UN women's evidence gathering to address inequalities in the post-2015 global development agenda: leisure as a site of inequality and a means of addressing inequality AU - Aitchison, Cara. World Leisure Journal, 55(2), 193-203. https://doi.org/10.1080/04419057.2013.782739 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/04419057.2013.782739
Hindley, D. (2020). “More Than Just a Run in the Parkâ€: An Exploration of Parkrun as a Shared Leisure Space. Leisure Sciences, 42(1), 85-105. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2017.1410741 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2017.1410741
Höglhammer, A., Muhar, A., Stokowski, P., Schauppenlehner, T., & Eder, R. (2018). Factors affecting adolescents’ use of urban public spaces in their leisure time: an exploratory study from the city of Vienna. Local Environment, 23(8), 814-829. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2018.1477744 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2018.1477744
Holdsworth, C., Laverty, L., & Robinson, J. (2017). Gender differences in teenage alcohol consumption and spatial practices. Children's Geographies, 15(6), 741-753. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2017.1334111 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2017.1334111
Ishaq, W., & Memon, S. Q. (2017). Roles of women in agriculture: A case study of rural Lahore, Pakistan. Journal of Rural Development and Agriculture, 1(1), 1-11.
Jackson, E. L., & Henderson, K. A. (1995). Genderâ€based analysis of leisure constraints. Leisure Sciences, 17(1), 31-51. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01490409509513241
James, K. (2001). “I Just Gotta Have My Own Space!â€: The Bedroom as a Leisure Site for Adolescent Girls. Journal of Leisure Research, 33(1), 71-90. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.2001.11949931 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.2001.11949931
Jin, X., & Whitson, R. (2014). Young women and public leisure spaces in contemporary Beijing: Recreating (with) gender, tradition, and place. Social & Cultural Geography, 15(4), 449-469. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2014.894115
Johnson, C. Y., Bowker, J. M., & Cordell, H. K. (2001). Outdoor recreation constraints: An examination of race, gender, and rural dwelling. Southern rural sociology, 17(1), 111-133.
Khan, S. (2011). Gendered leisure: are women more constrained in travel for leisure? Tourismos, 6(1).
Kim, J.-H., Brown, S. L., & Yang, H. (2018). Types of leisure, leisure motivation, and well-being in university students. World Leisure Journal, 61(1), 1-15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/16078055.2018.1545691
Lewis, S. T., & Johnson, C. W. (2011). “But it's not that easyâ€: negotiating (trans)gender expressions in leisure spaces. Leisure/Loisir, 35(2), 115-132. https://doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2011.567062 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2011.567062
Maharjan, A., Bauer, S., & Knerr, B. (2012). Do rural women who stay behind benefit from male out-migration? A case study in the hills of Nepal. Gender, Technology and Development, 16(1), 95-123. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/097185241101600105
Mai, S., & Hao, X. (2020). Older women’s identity reconstruction in leisure spaces: a case of Guangzhou, China. Leisure Studies, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2020.1735491 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2020.1735491
Masood, A. (2018). Negotiating mobility in gendered spaces: a case of Pakistani women doctors. Gender, place & culture, 25(2), 188-206. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2017.1418736
Mazumdar, S., & Mazumdar, S. (2001). Rethinking public and private space: Religion and women in Muslim society. Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, 18(4), 302-324.
Mughal, M. A. (2017). Time in Flux: Daily and Weekly Rhythms in Rural Pakistan. Asian Ethnology, 76(2), 261-287.
Mughal, M. A. Z. (2014). Time, Space and Social Change in Rural Pakistan: An Ethnographic Study of Jhokwala Village, Lodhran District Durham University].
Norman, M. E., Gerarda Power, N., & Dupré, K. (2011). Playing in the woods: Youth, leisure and the performance of gender relations in rural Newfoundland. Annals of Leisure Research, 14(2-3), 155-175. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/11745398.2011.615713
Paul, T. (2017). Mapping gendered spatialities in leisure: the case of new consumption spaces in the city of Kolkata. Contemporary South Asia, 25(4), 380-398. https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2017.1397601 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2017.1397601
Peters, K. (2010). Being Together in Urban Parks: Connecting Public Space, Leisure, and Diversity. Leisure sciences, 32(5), 418-433. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2010.510987 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2010.510987
Shaw, S. M. (1994). Gender, Leisure, and Constraint: Towards a Framework for the Analysis of Women's Leisure. Journal of Leisure Research, 26(1), 8-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.1994.11969941 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.1994.11969941
Shaw, S. M. (1999). Gender and leisure. Leisure studies: Prospects for the twenty-first century, 271-281.
Stebbins, R. A. (2017). Leisure’s Legacy: Challenging the Common Sense View of Free Time. Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59794-2_1
Taylor, J. (2003). Women's leisure activities, their social stereotypes and some implications for identity. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 66(4), 151-158. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/030802260306600404
Tucker, F., & Matthews, H. (2001). ‘They don’t like girls hanging around there’: conflicts over recreational space in rural Northamptonshire. Area, 33(2), 161-168. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-4762.00019
Veal, A. (2015). Human rights, leisure and leisure studies. World Leisure Journal, 57(4), 249-272. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/16078055.2015.1081271
Wagner, L., & Peters, K. (2014). Feeling at home in public: diasporic Moroccan women negotiating leisure in Morocco and the Netherlands. Gender, place & culture, 21(4), 415-430. https://doi.org/10.10 80/0966369X.2013.793658 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2013.793658
Watson, B., & Ratna, A. (2011). Bollywood in the park: thinking intersectionally about public leisure space. Leisure/Loisir, 35(1), 71-86. https://doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2011.549198 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2011.549198
Wronska, A. (2018). The Place of Women in Public Space: A Case Study of Street Harassment in Bangladesh (Publication Number 8945534) LUND UNIVERSITY]. LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES.
Yerkes, M. A., Roeters, A., & Baxter, J. (2018). Gender differences in the quality of leisure: a cross-national comparison. Community, Work & Family, 23(4), 1-18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2018.1528968
Zubair, S. (2003). Literacies across generations: Women’s religious and secular identities in Siraiki villages. South Asia Research, 23(2), 135-151. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0262728003232002