No interest, no time! Gendered constraints to museum visits in Flanders

Abstract

This paper investigates why non-attendees of museums in Flanders (Belgium) do not visit and how these reasons for not attending are related to gender. The hierarchical constraints framework is applied to non-attendees using the 2014 Participation Survey (N = 2707). Both interested and non-interested non-attendees are included in the analyses. Findings reveal that interest constraints are the greatest barrier for museum visits for both women and men. However, men do report this type of constraint more than women. Women, on the other hand, report more interpersonal and structural constraints. Older women seem doubly disadvantaged regarding interpersonal constraints, and women with a lower subjective income are doubly disadvantaged for both interpersonal and structural constraints. This paper explains discrepancies in the experiences of constraints between different groups by the hierarchy of social privilege, referring to the role of socialization and culture in influencing people's preferences. Evaluating the constraint model in research regarding cultural participation, the paper proposes a clarification based on Parsons' action theory framework.

Cultural stratification in the UK: Persistent gender and class differences in cultural voraciousness

“…Indeed, the focus on affect draws the discussion of gendered cultural stratification even further away from class-related dynamics to uncover identity-related and interactional mechanisms behind the gendering of cultural engagement (Lagaert et al, 2017; Ridgeway and Kricheli-Katz, 2013). These involve, for example, interpersonal and structural constraints on engagement (Mullens and Glorieux, 2019), various tensions in the workplace due to expectations that are grounded in a gendered ideal-worker narrative, fuelling inequality especially among professional women (Brumley, 2014), and the construction of specific emotion cultures in response to emotional opportunities and constraints created by the context of organisations (Guenther, 2009; Kelly et al, 2010).…”