Women, Leisure and Tourism

Self-actualization and Empowerment through the Production and Consumption of Experience

Linda Ingram, Klára Tarkó, Susan L Slocum, Linda Ingram, Klára Tarkó, Susan L Slocum

• Editore: CAB International
• Anno: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781789248012
• Argomento: Business
• Categoria: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry

Women, Leisure and Tourism provides a comprehensive discussion of women, leisure, and tourism through the lens of leisure production and consumption, both by women and for women. Specifically, this text includes a multi-cultural perspective to highlight the unique attributes leisure brings to women, the role of women in leisure entrepreneurship, and the creation of supportive, inclusive environments to enhance female well-being through the examination of these activities in often overlooked populations. The diversity of women's leisure and tourism practices is best perceived through the links between various leisure practices (e.g., sport, outdoor recreation, travel and tourism, learning, crafts, events, family leisure), as well as an understanding of leisure production across cultures and life stages. These chapters bring to the forefront many of the challenges inherent in providing leisure and tourism that support the diverse needs of women, as well as a look at female innovation that is also often overlooked in leisure research. The book includes examples of both applied and conceptual chapters from global perspectives in academic studies. This book: - Is written by multi-disciplinary authors.- Includes case studies, research methodologies and pedagogical approaches to highlight the complexity of gender studies and provide a diverse toolkit to support further research on women and gender.- Presents applied and conceptual chapters from global perspectives in academic studies.This book is valuable for academics and graduate students of tourism, leisure and gender studies.

1 Introduction: Women as Producers and Consumers of Leisure

Linda J. Ingram¹*, Susan L. Slocum¹, and Klára Tarkó²

¹George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA; ²University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary

*Corresponding author: [email protected]

©CAB International 2022. Women, Leisure and Tourism (eds L.J. Ingram et al.)

DOI: 10.1079/9781789247985.0001

1.1 Introduction

Although often mentioned, it bears repeating: women are not a homogeneous group. While we share basic needs, we are diverse – from our sociocultural and economic differences, our interests and desires, our lived experiences, to our situated knowledge. Yet, on a daily basis, women continue to face inequality, harassment, violence, lack of bodily autonomy, racism, sexism, and antiquated beliefs about our ‘place’ in society. While progress has been made, it is uneven and often subject to discrimination rooted in patriarchal dominance. Even something as fundamental to one’s well-being as leisure (Hunnicutt, 2006; Kuykendall et al., 2018) remains elusive for many. In fact, while men have gained more leisure time over the past decade, women have even less (Yerkes et al., 2020).

The relationship between women and leisure is both dynamic and complex, evolving as women’s lives change. Traditionally, leisure research has focused on Western leisure, omitting the forms and practices of other cultures (Dodd and Sharma, 2012). Expanding leisure research that focuses on often overlooked populations is fundamental to developing policies and practices that take account of women’s diverse sociocultural, economic, and environmental contexts (Demirbaş, 2020). The purpose of this book’s multicultural collaboration is to provide a forum where the latest developments, trends, and research involving women, leisure, and tourism can be discussed. The authors come from a variety of disciplines and countries, showcasing an array of leisure and tourism activities as methods of personal empowerment, as well as a form of resistance, to outdated gender stereotypes and ideologies. A variety of case studies, research methodologies, and pedagogical approaches highlight the complexity of gender studies and provide a diverse toolkit to support further research on gender and leisure. This volume includes examples of both applied and conceptual chapters from global perspectives in academic studies.

The chapters presented here are not intended to be an exhaustive exploration of the topic. Rather, we offer the opportunity to examine the intersectionality of women, leisure, and tourism from the vantage point of under-represented communities in an effort to broaden our understanding of leisure, gender, power, and inequality (Demirbaş, 2020). We begin by discussing the contested topics of gender and leisure in order to establish the infrastructure for the chapters that follow. Additional terms and concepts are defined as needed, as well as a brief look at some of the theoretical and conceptual foundations of these areas in current literature.

1.2 Gender

One cannot discuss leisure without including gender (Shaw, 1994). Traditional power structures are strongly correlated to gender, resulting in a dominance versus subordination paradigm where women are, by and large, subordinate to an entrenched patriarchy. Leisure, then, becomes a constrained activity for most women for a variety of reasons, including societal roles; religious and cultural mores; access; opportunity; time; economic status; age; and disabilities (Khan, 2011). Decades of research into the gendered nature of leisure have revealed ‘multiple ways of knowing’ and understanding the complexity of women’s leisure, while continuing to refine and enhance our understanding (Parry et al., 2019, p. 2). It is within this context that women approach and understand their roles as producers and consumers of leisure experiences, as they resist outdated gender roles and leisure/work conflicts to integrate and maintain hard-won autonomies. In fact, there is an argument to be made that producing and consuming leisure, through participation, resistance, and empowerment, can be considered a component of moving towards self-actualization.

The concept of gender remains a contested topic – both academically and culturally. However, most agree that, broadly, gender is a socially constructed perspective that establishes and entrenches divisions in power, behaviour, labour, roles, and responsibilities (Khan, 2011) leading to social, economic, and environmental inequities (Eagly and Wood, 2016). We recognize that gender is not dichotomous and that it exists along a continuum. We acknowledge that identities can be found along the gender continuum of female and male, and that there are variations in gender, identity, and orientation. Acknowledging gender variance expressed through anatomical, behavioural, and emotional expressions can combat sexism (Castleberry, 2019).

For the purposes of this discussion, we draw on Henderson (1994), Shaw (1999), and Khan (2011), proposing that gender be understood as the learned roles and responsibilities created by economic and sociocultural environments that include expectations about the characteristics, aptitudes, interests, and roles with which members are expected to comply. Ferree (1990), as cited by Khan (2011, p. 106) sees gender as ‘a hierarchical structure of opportunity and oppression’. As gender equality becomes increasingly important, feminism is pivotal to addressing, resisting, and alleviating the inequities associated with lopsided patriarchal power structures, including poverty, injustice, and the triple bottom line of sustainability (Phillips and Cree, 2013).

Gender-based power structures are in a constant state of flux as they are negotiated and renegotiated (Shaw, 1999). Third-wave feminism drew upon this concept, arguing that women’s perspectives, experiences, and situated knowledge are dependent upon and intertwined with the sociocultural and economic aspects of their lived environments (Munro, 2013). While still limited in extant literature, fourth-wave feminism emerged to advance the third-wave agenda, incorporating two new tools (Phillips and Cree, 2013). First, the use of social media to express, reflect, and circulate emerging ideas about women, how they live, and the ‘commodification of all that is feminine’ (Phillips and Cree, 2013, p. 939). The second, intersectionality, ‘is the interaction between gender, race and other categories of difference in individual lives, social practices, individual arrangements, and cultural ideologies and the outcomes of these interactions in terms of power’ (Davis, 2008, p. 68).

Nash (2008) opines that research often fails to recognize vast differences in experience, culture, opportunities, sexual orientation, and economics. Intersectionality mitigates this issue and has become ‘the dominant framework’ of the fourth wave, ‘with its considerations of class, race, age, ability, sexuality, and gender as intersecting loci of discriminations or privileges’ (Zimmerman, 2017, p. 54). Shields (2008) notes the importance of studying gender through the lens of intersectionality, as power relations are embedded in social identities, while Nash (2008) calls it the ‘gold standard multi-disciplinary approach for analysing subjects’ experiences of both identity and oppression’ (p. 1). While intersectionality has been studied across diverse disciplines, its connection to leisure remains largely unexplored (Watson and Scraton, 2013). While not all of the chapters in this volume refer to intersectionality directly, its influence is apparent throughout.

1.3 Leisure

Ideas about the meaning and purpose of leisure in life have been, and continue to be, in a constant state of flux. According to Aristotle, people work in order to have leisure (Hunnicutt, 2006). For Veblen (1967), leisure is a socio-economic set of transactions, based on production and consumption, used to gain social stature and to enhance one’s perceived status. Almost 70 years ago, Pieper (2009) first asserted that leisure is the basis of culture; a way of being rather than activities undertaken separately from daily responsibilities. Hunnicutt (2006) argues that the past, present, and future of leisure mirrors ‘patterns of social, cultural, religious, political, economic, and technological change and difference’ (p. 55). In contemporary society, while remnants of earlier assumptions are still in play, leisure is now more closely tied to well-being and identity (Sie and Pegg, 2015), yet something for which sufficient time is often elusive.

As work styles changed in the latter half of the 20th century, leisure activities moved to the forefront of people’s lives and have remained there (Stebbins, 1992, 2004). Leisure, through both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations (Neulinger, 1981), can lead to greater self-expression, sense of belonging, additional skill sets, and increased health and happiness (Ingram, 2015). Haggard and Williams (1992) contend that we affirm and enhance our identities through our leisure choices.

Leisure satisfaction and fulfilment are highly individualized and based on personal preferences. In other words, leisure is often ‘different things to different people’ (Ateca-Amestoy et al., 2008, p. 65). Those authors envision leisure as:

a complex human need that is fulfilled by the production and consumption of individually defined pleasant experiences. Each agent defines the boundaries of leisure on the basis of her tastes, she has different resource availability to fulfil her needs, and may value an outcome in many different ways, depending on her aspirations.

(Ateca-Amestoy et al., 2008, p. 64)

While there are a variety of definitions and ideas about leisure (Juniu and Henderson, 2001; Ateca-Amestoy et al., 2008), for this volume we adopt Stebbins’s (2007) view of leisure as ‘an uncoerced activity engaged in during free time, which people want to do and, in either a satisfying or a fulfilling way (or both), use their abilities and resources to succeed at this’ (p. 4). However, as the chapters that follow will show, the ability to participate is predicated on a variety of factors including economic, environmental, cultural, and family structures.

1.3.1 Women’s leisure, self-actualization, and empowerment

As noted in the title of this book, we proceed on the premise that leisure is one of the life dimensions where women choose to not only relax and revitalize, but to embrace self-actualization and empowerment. We invite readers to explore what follows from this vantage point, as the contributing authors unpack leisure experiences and perspectives of women from this largely unexplored collective. Yet, in spite of four decades of research, women’s leisure remains a contested topic (Henderson and Gibson, 2013; Parry et al., 2019). Leisure scholars have situated women’s leisure along a continuum, from leisure as recreation and rejuvenation to leisure as resistance and a form of political practice, thereby challenging entrenched power structures throughout society (Shaw, 2001; McKeown and Parry, 2019). Women’s leisure remains an ever-changing complexity of activities, ideas, theories, and practices requiring vigilant attention in order to understand the moving pieces as they change and evolve, as well as how women are both influenced by and influencers of leisure (Henderson and Gibson, 2013). For example, Shaw proposes:

Leisure as resistance is firmly centered on the notion that individual women have agency, but the need for resistance is also based on the assumption that oppression, inequities and constraints exist, and that these are related to gender as well as other material conditions of life.

(Shaw, 2001, pp. 193–194)

Leisure’s connection to women, self-actualization, and personal empowerment is well established in the literature. For example, Freysinger and Flannery (1992) determine that ‘in self-determined leisure women were empowered to resist falsifying, but also to regain or create, their sense of themselves’ (p. 303). Raisborough and Bhatti (2007) describe women’s leisure as ‘a source of empowered, self-determined identities with which women can resist and undermine constructions of traditional and normative femininity’ (p. 459). Cronan and Scott (2008) argue that leisure, as a form of resistance, opens the door to social change and can enhance personal empowerment and transformation. Kleiber et al. (2002) also suggest leisure can play ‘a central role’ in personal transformation (p. 229). While this research concentrated primarily on transformation connected to stress-related growth (Chun et al., 2012), there is an argument to be made for leisure’s transformative properties in everyday life. Caldwell (2005) wrote of the connections found between leisure, mental health, self-efficacy, and self-worth. Deci and Ryan (1995) argue that self-esteem is integral to effective decision making, adaptability and resilience, motivation, and well-being. Maslow and Fitts contend that self-esteem is foundational to self-actualization (Jones and Crandall, 1986).

1.3.2 Women and tourism

In recognizing that leisure both facilitates and spurs tourism, and that...

Indice dei contenuti

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Tables and Figures
• Contributors
• 1 Introduction: Women as Producers and Consumers of Leisure
• 2 An Examination of Female Exceptionalism in Early Leisure Placemaking Activities
• 3 Masculinity and Moral Licensing in the Locker Room: A Critical Analysis of Culture, Gender, and Leisure
• 4 Sport for Women in Later Life
• 5 History and Identity: Female Vendors at a Renaissance Festival
• 6 By Her Own Hand: Creativity, Crafts, and Commerce in the Verde Valley, Arizona
• 7 Creating a Culture of Consent for Event Tourism
• 8 Older Women and Leisure
• 9 Non-Formal Learning Participation as Leisure for Syrian Refugee Women in Turkey
• 10 Running Away or Running Toward? Pilgrimage as a Source of Women’s Leisure
• 11 Gamer Women – ‘Tourists’ or ‘Citizens’?
• 12 A Netnographic Study on Chinese Women’s Guimi Travel Experiences
• 13 Queen on the Go: An Africana Woman Scholar and Traveller Experience
• 14 Women and Leisure in the Italian Context
• 15 Understanding the Intersectionality of Urban Indian Women’s Leisure Experience
• 16 Conclusion
• Index
• Backmatter
• Backcover
• Longdesc7.2
• Longdesc7.2
• Longdesc14.2
• Longdesc14.3
• Longdesc14.4