1. Introduction

1.1. The Concept of Leisure

Leisure has been the subject of scholarly interest in many fields including history, sociology and cultural studies. It is a branch of social sciences which focuses on understanding and analysing leisure. In the last few decades many studies have incorporated gender as an important factor in explaining leisure patterns as in[1]. Gender and leisure offers a contemporary socio-cultural analysis of gender relations in leisure practice. The early Marxist writers associated leisure with the bourgeoisie i.e. the class of people in the society who are rich, educated, own property and means of production. The leisure class can also be described as those who were not slaves to the capitalist industrial system, who had time to relax, enjoy life, and be creative. In other words, they have enough wealth for free time and for the pursuit of non-pecuniary activities. Leisure has variety of interpretations among scholars about its origin, meaning, benefits, problems and place in society. In the views of as in[2] leisure is a distinguishing feature of those classes whose lives are not dominated by alienating influence of work; leisure implies idleness, a time in which to be creative; it is also referred to as a consumption time in an affluent society.

Leisure can be described as a state achieved whenever a person is in optimal interaction with the environment; as in[3] labels this, state of playfulness or “flow” when there is simultaneous presence of four conditions:

(1) The individual is free from obligation

(2) The activity pursued is a voluntary choice

(3) The participation is pleasurable

(4) The activity pursued is culturally recognized as leisure.

The most crucial point about leisure is the freedom to choose how to spend ones time. Another crucial feature of free time is that it can be allocated on an ad hoc basis and there is a high degree of flexibility. For the bulk of women, leisure is probably best described in terms of very simple things such as a chance to rest, to socialize, to be entertained, in other words, the ability to be what may be called unproductively free as in[4]. Women’s leisure is also more likely to be fragmented and to be a secondary activity. Fragmented leisure refers to leisure enjoyed in small units of time rather than in blocks which makes it difficult to develop any sustainable leisure interests. Leisure as secondary activity refers to leisure that is combined with non-leisure doings e.g. listening to the radio while cooking; this is relaxing but does not allow wholehearted immersion in any thing as in[4].

2. The Nature of Leisure Activities

Leisure can be sub-divided into three categories: Recreation, Social and Pleasure activities. Recreation is used to denote essentially organized activities, entertainments, sport, eating out etc. Pleasure denotes those activities which are not organized except on family basis e.g. trips into the country, walks in the park or field and holidays. Social activities are those involving people and not places e.g. visit friends and relations as in[5]. Despite the preoccupation with leisure, attempts by social scientists to understand the phenomenon have been piecemeal responses to specific problems.

3. Empirical Studies

In this section, other related research works are discussed.

Sociologists of leisure were encouraged to search for an essential and measurable definition of leisure that would reveal variations in leisure behaviour among individuals and make it possible to search for a correlation between these individual leisure habits and various associated variables such as occupation, income, education, age, gender and race as in[6]. Such a line of investigation yielded very mixed results. They pointed out that there are clear age and gender differences in leisure patterns, but socio-economic status is only weakly correlated with specific leisure pastimes, education is correlated with having a wide range of leisure activities and with higher dedication to them. The subject field of leisure studies has been unable to develop a coherent body of knowledge on disability and leisure as in[7].

Leisure is actually a feature of modern industrial societies; one would want to know the significance of this study in a third world country like Nigeria that has other basic things to contend with. The justification is that due to globalization and modernization and the affluence of the 'nouveau riche', some Nigerian citizens have acquired the life style of the developed countries and thereby get more involved in conspicuous consumption. Besides, people are now aware of the importance of relaxation, and physical exercise. The concept of leisure is indeed of Western origin, and specific terms denoting leisure generally do not occur in non-Western languages but in any case all language has vocabularies that refer to recreation activities or events.

Leisure is a concept understood and practiced differently by people in various countries of the world. Nigeria is a multicultural nation with 250 ethnic groups. The way they spend their free time vary from one ethnic group to another. One of the most prominent ethnic groups in Nigeria is the Igbos. Among the Igbos of south-eastern Nigeria, there is what can be called recreation that is, the time people gather at the village square to play some games, or watch various activities. Young boys engage themselves in wrestling, while young girls’ and young women amuse themselves with their local dance. Elderly men tell folk lores to children who gather around them to listen. Some of the middle aged men play games using special seeds from local trees with locally made boards “ ekwe” (board with seven holes). Another way they spend their leisure time is by visiting friends or relations who are sick or bereaved. Some of this pattern of spending free time has been modified and modernized. The village squares are now used during festivals. Due to influence of education Nigerians are now professionals and engage in wage labour. In other words, social change, brought about by globalization and urbanization, leisure pursuit, in Nigeria took a different dimension as shown by the findings of this study. Nigeria has to some extent adopted the western pattern of leisure.

One approach to understanding the impact of gender on leisure behaviour has been to study the constraints on women’s leisure. This approach helps to explain why women are less likely than men to participate in many outdoor recreation activities and visit public parks. Some of the constraints include family pattern and that ethic of care associated with women. Traditionally, women are socialized to put thee needs of others particularly their families, above their own needs and are more likely to be influenced than men by their children’s, or spouses’ choice of leisure preferences as in[8]. Family factors affect women’s role in sustainable development as in[9].

4. The Place for Leisure Activities

The question to ask is, where and how do women spend their leisure time? It has not been easy for women to make use of public places in pursuit of leisure in their own right. They encounter some difficulties which include inadequate, income to afford to engage in leisure, challenging stereotypes about gender specific activities and the need to include children in their leisure pursuits. The place accessible to women for leisure pursuits is most of the time at home.

According to as in[10] a typical woman's day is described by Margaret thus: Women combine work especially working in the home and leisure. Margaret describes her daily life as a housewife, thus – in the evening i.e. night while the children are asleep she reads the paper, watch television make phone calls. Some other evenings she combines ironing with watching television. The nature of women’s work at home is routine. As in[11] pointed out that the housewife despite an autonomy located in personal control of the content and pattern of her day, does not feel free to choose her own activities. As in[11] further pointed out that demands on women particularly mothers who have young children, mean that, it is difficult for them to have time for leisure, as a result of this, women develop strategies for constructing leisure which may mean simultaneously doing work and engaging in a pursuit for their own enjoyment. Margaret snatched moments for herself when she walked to school to fetch her child, when she reads the paper in the evening, perhaps, in between spells of completing unfinished chores.

The “affluent worker” studies, found evidence of increasing consideration on the nuclear family for leisure activities, and as in[12] in the study of working wives, noted that for working class groups, recreation is television – centred.

Financial position of women has influence on the amount of free time available for her personal leisure pursuit. Some women who can afford to have domestic help (maid) can have sometime free for leisure activities.

Women who combine paid employment with domestic work have little time for leisure.

Another important issue to discuss is the place assessable to men and women for leisure pursuit. Most men carry out leisure activities outside the home. The most popular place they go for leisure is the club (Pub). In fact, going to club is the major site for male enjoyment, while majority of women stay at home.

Most studies to date suggest that women are less likely to participate in outdoor recreation than men because of the ethic of care, lack of entitlement, and a threat of violence which is pervasive not only at the site outdoor recreation but also within the culture as in[8].

5. Justification of the Study

The fact is that sociological analysis on leisure in contemporary society focused more on developed countries. Not much research on gender and leisure has been done in Nigeria; consequently literature in this area is not available to the researcher hence, the justification for this research. The purpose of this study is to investigate what men and women do at leisure time, the place they go for leisure activities, the time spent on leisure and the constraints to leisure pursuit.

6. Research Questions

The following research questions guided the study:

a) What do men and women do at their leisure time?

b) Where do they spend their leisure time?

c) How much time do they spend on leisure activities?

d) What are the constraints to leisure pursuit?

7. Methodology

This section shows the method used for carrying out the research.

The research design was a survey. The study was carried out in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State Nigeria. The population consists of different categories of civil servants who are resident at Nsukka urban. The choice of the area is due to the high concentration of high caliber of government employees made up of university professors, lecturers, teachers and other levels of civil servants who are most likely to engage in leisure activities. Due to the nature of the study, purposive sampling technique was used, to draw 220 respondents from the population.

The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire with 13 items that were based on purpose of study and research question. The questionnaire was given to experts in physical and health education and measurement and evaluation for face validity. A pilot study was carried out which gave a reliability co-efficient of 0.82.

The distribution and collection of the questionnaire were done by the researcher. The total number of questionnaires distributed were 220 but 200 were found usable. The sample size therefore was 96 male and 104 female giving a total sample size of 200. The data for the 4 research questions that guided the study were analysed using frequency distribution and simple percentages.

8. Results

The results of the study are presented in the following tables.

Table 1. Educational Level of the Respondents Level of Education N WAEC/GCE 40 First Degree 84 Masters Degree and above 76 Total 200

The data in Table 1 show that majority of the respondents have high educational level and that most of them are graduates.

Research question 1:

What do men and women do at their leisure time?

The data presented in Table 2 revealed that reading newspaper has a score of 84.4% for men and 65.38% for women, reading magazine 55.2% for men and 75% for women reading novel 60.5% and 31.2% for men, and watching television programme, 77% for men and 98% for women.

Others include taking a walk in the field/road 36.5% for men and 43.3% for women. Going to club is 18.8% for men and 14% for women while doing sporting activities have 18.8% and 14% for men and women respectively.

Research Question 2:

Where do they spend their leisure time?

The data on Table 3 shows that 62.5% of the women spend leisure time at home while 18% of the men spend leisure at home. The table also shows that 27% and 14% of the men and women respectively spend their leisure outside the home.

Research Question 3:

How much time do they spend on leisure activities?

On the time spent on leisure 31% of the men spent less than 30 minutes while 56% and 23% of the men and women respectively spend 30 to 60minutes. The table also show that 36.1% men and 34% women spend 60minutes and above.

Research question 4:

What are the constraints to leisure pursuit?

Table 2. Frequency distribution of leisure pursuit according to gender S/N ItemsWhat men and women do at leisure time Male N=96 Female N=104 Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage 1 Read news paper 81 84.4 68 65.38 2 Read magazine 53 55.2 78 75 3 Read novel 30 31.2 63 60.5 4 Watch television programme 74 77 102 98 5 Take a walk in the field/road 35 36.5 45 43.3 6 Work in the garden 27 28 27 28 7 Go to the club/pub 18 18.8 15 14 8 Do sporting activities, gym etc. 18 18.8 15 14 9 None of the above 12 12.5 12 12.5

Table 3. Where they spend their leisure time S/N ItemsWhere men and women spend their leisure time Male N=96 Female N=104 Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage 1 Home 18 18.8 60 62.5 2 Outside the home 26 27 15 14

Table 4. Time spent on leisure activities S/N Items Male N=96 Female N=104 Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage 1 Less than 30 minutes 30 31 21 0.21 2 30-60minutes 54 56 24 23 3 Over 60 minutes 35 36.1 33 34

Table 5. Constraints to leisure S/N Items Male N=96 Female N=104 Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage 1 Companion 47 55 42 40 2 The nature of my job 53 55 75 72 3 Time factor 47 48 75 72 4 Lack of interest 0 0 104 1 5 Domestic work 9 9.37 72 69

The data on Table 5 revealed the above constraints: companion 55% for men and 40% for women, nature of job 55% for men, 72% for women; time factor 48% for men, 72% for women and 69% and 9.37% of the women and men respectively indicated domestic work as constraint.

9. Discussion

This section discussed the findings of the research.

The educational levels of the respondents are very high. Quite a good number have Masters Degree, some have Doctorate Degree and more than half are graduates. The high level of education of the respondents may be due to the fact that the area of study is a university town. Most of them can be classified as middle class on the basis of their educational level.

The data in Table 2 show that leisure choices differ by gender. Watching television ranked high among women than men, 98% and 77% respectively. The finding is as in[12] who pointed out that working class group's recreation is television centred. The implication is that women are engaged in passive leisure pursuit instead of physical activity that promotes active social living. The result of this study differs with as in[13] which noted that, men have slightly more leisure time than women. Overall, men spend more time than women watching television- an extra 1.5 hours a week. They also spend an additional hours going to restaurants, cafes and pubs. Reading, taking a walk in the field and television watch is the top three for women in this study. It is surprising that reading ranked high; this disagrees with as in[14] who found that generally women in Nigeria do not read newspapers and magazines. The level of education of the respondents must be responsible for this result. With reference to social status and reading of newspaper as in[15] explored the social basis of cultural consumption by examining their association between newspaper and social status. The report is strong and systematic association between status and newspaper readership which is consistent with the expected link between status in the classical Weberian sense on one hand and cultural level and lifestyle on the other. Another reason may be that 62.5% of the women spend their leisure time at home, therefore they read at their leisure time. It also agrees with as in[10] who pointed out that while the children are asleep she reads the paper watch television and make phone calls. Other times, she combines watching television with ironing. This is as in[6] who said that women do not feel free to choose their own activities especially those with young children who find it difficult to have time for leisure. They have to stay at home for the sake of the children.

On the issue of constraints to leisure pursuit, 69% of women indicated that domestic work is their major constraint while some others indicated lack of interest, time factor and nature of their job. In fact nature of job ranked high 72% among women. The above finding agrees as in[16] who pointed out that women either don't do leisure or they do free leisure or at best cheap leisure or they fail to perceive any difference between work and leisure. As in[16] went further to say that a woman's leisure activity is “shopping”, and described shopping as a grinding toil that women mistake for play. Another point is that most women would say that they have very little time to themselves. The time they don't spend in their paid job, they spend doing “House work” and “child care”, may be added.

Men may spend their free time relaxing, but for women it's just another form of opportunity for work in a different area. The highlights of men's leisure pursuit are going to club, reading newspaper, and sporting activity. It then means that while 62.5% of the women spend their leisure time at home, 27% of the men spend their leisure outside the home. The main constraints men have for leisure pursuit is nature of job, unlike women who have domestic work and job as their main constraints.

10. Conclusions

On the issue of leisure choices, the top three for women are reading, watching television programme, and taking a walk. While for men they are reading newspaper, going to club and sports. The nature of their leisure choice revealed that level of education has influence on leisure activities undertaken by the respondents.

Some women do not feel free to choose their own activity because they have to take into consideration the care of their children especially women who have younger kids. Consequently, women spend most of their leisure time at home. Other times are spent in shopping. A few women take part in physical activity which is mostly taking a walk and more women indulge in this more than men. The fact that some women can squeeze out time for a walk is really encouraging, it means that some women are trying to escape from boredom and reutilized activity in the home. One interesting thing is that women in this sample do not feel bad about not having enough time for leisure activity. They accept the situation in good faith because of their ethic of care and the feeling of lack entitlement. Women must realize that leisure is the time to renew oneself, without that renewal time, the person may “burn out”.

The major constraints men have for leisure pursuit is their job while for women it is both job and domestic work. It is obvious that men have more leisure time than women. However, there is evidence that the respondents are aware of leisure activities and participate in them. Leisure for women will be more and more home-centred because of technological advances like the telephone, television and radio.

The recommendations are that women have to overcome their workplace alienation so as to have time for leisure, for their physical and mental development. Urban planners should make provision for amusement park at Nsukka for both adults and children's relaxation. This will enable the women to take their children to the park and have opportunity to make use of recreational facilities available there.

There should be further research in this virgin area which will cover a wider range of occupational group for both men and women including women who are on paid employment and those who are full time house-wives.