One Family, Two Leisure Worlds: Analysis of Gender Order and Its Relationship to the "Leisure Gap" Between Mothers and Fathers.

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Bibliographic Details
Title: One Family, Two Leisure Worlds: Analysis of Gender Order and Its Relationship to the "Leisure Gap" Between Mothers and Fathers.
Authors: Ho, Ching-Hua (AUTHOR)
Source: Leisure Sciences. 2026, Vol. 48 Issue 5, p923-943. 21p.
Subjects: Gender role, Leisure, Father-child relationship, Equality, Social norms, Work-life balance, Family relations, Motherhood
Abstract: This study aimed to explore contextual factors influencing couples' leisure practices and experiences through in-depth interviews with 15 Taiwanese heteronormative married couples. Findings suggested that despite Taiwanese women's performance in the public sphere, husbands benefit from using work-family narratives and attendant gender order and practices as unconscious "social defenses" to rationalize leisure inequality generated by gender norms. When married women are under pressure to accept gender norms attached to wives or mothers, they reconfigure their understanding of gender roles to implicitly acknowledge male dominance in a "system justification" manner. In addition, they further redefine motherhood in the way they feel best fits their position in the family and curb their desire for personal leisure. Unequal gender relationships determine couples' perceptions and patterns of leisure, which contributes, at least in part, to the persistence of leisure inequalities in the family environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Database: Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection
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Abstract:This study aimed to explore contextual factors influencing couples' leisure practices and experiences through in-depth interviews with 15 Taiwanese heteronormative married couples. Findings suggested that despite Taiwanese women's performance in the public sphere, husbands benefit from using work-family narratives and attendant gender order and practices as unconscious "social defenses" to rationalize leisure inequality generated by gender norms. When married women are under pressure to accept gender norms attached to wives or mothers, they reconfigure their understanding of gender roles to implicitly acknowledge male dominance in a "system justification" manner. In addition, they further redefine motherhood in the way they feel best fits their position in the family and curb their desire for personal leisure. Unequal gender relationships determine couples' perceptions and patterns of leisure, which contributes, at least in part, to the persistence of leisure inequalities in the family environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:01490400
DOI:10.1080/01490400.2024.2410243