Gender, Social Class, Leisure and Well-Being: Challenging Leisure as the Holy Grail

Marybeth J. Mattingly, University of New Hampshire
Liana C. Sayer, University of Maryland

Research documents gender and class differences in the quantity, quality, and experience of leisure. Less is known about how differences are correlated with health and well-being. We use data from the 2010 American Time Use Survey and Well-being Module to extend work from the 1990s that found women’s leisure is less refreshing than men’s. We consider gender and social class differences in the distribution, experience, and perception of leisure, and investigate if gender, social class, and leisure independently and jointly affect feeling well rested and health. Preliminary results indicate women have less leisure than men and leisure declines steadily as education and income increase. We also find gender and social class variation in associations of leisure with health outcomes. In future analyses, we will consider if gender and social class differences persist across new measures of leisure quality and if differences are mediated by subjective perceptions of leisure.