Gender Differences in the Quantity and Quality of Free Time: The U.S. Experience

This study uses newly collected time diary data to assess gender differences in both quantity and quality of free time, including measures of contamination of free time by nonleisure activities such as household chores, the fragmentation of free time, and how frequently children's needs must be accommodated during free-time activities. Our findings suggest that men and women do experience free time very differently. Men tend to have more of it. Marriage and children exacerbate the gender gap and market work hours erode men's and women's free time in different ways. Our findings reveal that despite gains toward gender equality in other domains, discrepancies persist in the experience of free time.