On-line leisure: Gender, and ICTs in the home

Research into office automation originally acted as a catalyst for research into gender perspectives on information technology. Whilst a fuller picture of women's use of ICTs is emerging, there has been little research on women's leisure use of ICTs, particularly within a domestic setting. Added to the way in which the leisure studies discipline has discovered gender as a variable, this is somewhat surprising. In this paper we argue that current debates on ‘virtual culture’ would be enriched by analysing the gender dimensions of the use of ICTs for leisure. In addressing personal agency we see women as active agents rather than passive victims of existing structures. The paper addresses negotiations around leisure and the use of technology in the home and how this illuminates the construction of gender identities. The ways in which work and leisure seep into one another are examined through a consideration of electronic mail and the World Wide Web. Although we conclude that women's leisure access is played out within familiar constraints of time and space there are glimpses of a more promising future to be found.