A View of Leisure and Patterns of Family Life in the Late 1990s

Abstract

This study investigated the place of leisure and role responsibilities of working parents in the establishment period of the family life cycle in the late 1990s. One focus of this study was to see how much had changed in the patterns of family life and leisure as documented in the studies of the mid 1980s and early 1990s compared with today. Personal interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of sixteen working mothers and fathers. A constant comparison, grounded theory approach was used throughout the interviews and data analysis. Three themes related to leisure in the lives of working parents emerged from the data: (i) freedom of choice as a central condition of leisure; (ii) conflicts between work, leisure, and family; and (iii) resisting and negotiating the superwoman and typical male ideal. The themes were interpreted within a feminist post-structuralist perspective drawing upon a Foucauldian power analysis.