Gender differences in leisure patterns at age 50 and above: micro and macro aspects

Abstract

The current paper seeks to explore whether there are differences in leisure patterns among men and women aged 50 and above, and whether the characteristics of one's country of residence influence these patterns. Data were obtained from the first wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE 2004/5), as well as from the database of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The research population comprised 7,769 men and 9,337 women aged 50 and above from 11 European countries. Three clustered-robust logistic regression models examined the likelihood of participating in one or more of three leisure activities: going to sport or social clubs, participating in a course or educational class, and volunteering. Three Blinder–Oaxaca decompositions were used to examine gender gaps in participation in each activity. At the micro level, the results showed that men were more active than women and that men were also less influenced by the observed characteristics. In addition, retirement only increased the likelihood of participating in sport club activities for men. At the macro level, the country's expenditure on culture and recreation was found to contribute significantly to women's participation in leisure activities, especially those in which most of the participants are men. In addition, macro variables as a whole were found to reduce the contribution of the observed micro characteristics. The main conclusion of the study is that the macro factors, especially the country's expenditure on culture and recreation as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product, contribute substantially to reducing the gender gap in participation in leisure activities in older age.

The Age-Related Performance Decline in Marathon Running: The Paradigm of the Berlin Marathon

“…The relatively lower number of women finishers in the older than in the younger age groups was in line with existing literature [23], and might be partially explained by the variation in exercise participation by sex [24,25,26]. For instance, it has been observed previously that more older men than women participated in sport activities [24,25,26], and more opportunities for exercise were identified for men than women [27]. Consequently, it would be reasonable to attribute the relatively lower number of female marathon finishers in the older age to their rates of overall sports participation.…”

Activity Profiles among Older Adults: Latent Class Analysis Using the Korean Time Use Survey

“…Another study based on a representative sample of American older adults showed that although a certain type of caregiving (e.g., spousal caregiving) was negatively associated with formal and informal volunteering, this negative relationship existed only for female older adults, lending partial support for the role-substitution or strain perspective [47]. Female older adults are less active in leisure and other activities than their male counterparts [53], at least partly due to the family burdens they face.…”

From physical to social interactions: The relative entropy model

“…However, as gender differences have been documented for leisure activities (e.g. [5][6][7], we may hypothesize that the interaction between the men and the women participating in the date imposes mutual constraints that result in a joint dating activity that can be characterized by leisure activities probably different from each of the parties' unique distribution of preferences or their simple sum. The entropy of a couple's dating activities is therefore non-additive and different from the simple sum of each of the individuals' preferences.…”