ABSTRACT
This chapter considers participation in leisure within the broad context of people’s lives, their experience of employment or lack of it, their age, sex, and family upbringing. The catalogue of influences upon leisure participation is extensive. The chapter addresses social divisions giving rise to differences and inequalities in leisure. These include material inequalities of income, availability of free time, access to leisure resources and cultural inequalities, in perceptions of appropriate behaviour and the meaning of activities for different participants. But, in all social research, occupation is identified as the prime indicator of social class. Gender is a social construct and relates to society’s conception of the attitudes, qualities and roles appropriate for men and women. Social class is a ‘slippery’ concept having various dimensions, and different connotations of power, prestige, money and culture. Gender roles within the family give variable constraints and opportunities in time for leisure, disposable income, and leisure activity.
