Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Like most women in Canada, the women in this study were not sufficiently physically active to achieve health benefits, despite being aware of those benefits. Informed by feminist leisure studies, I propose that the women's limited engagement in physical activity can be understood along a continuum of constraint and agency that is consistent with three distinct approaches to analyzing women's leisure (Shaw 1994). The first focuses on the constraints women face, as documented in the women's reports of lack of time, resources, and opportunities for leisure. The second analyzes the gendered nature of physical activity/leisure participation and how it reproduces gender relations and ageism. Efforts to accommodate women's domestic and caring responsibilities in order to engage in physical activity align with this approach. Lastly, the third approach analyzes physical activity as a site of resistance to gender relations and norms. When women engage in male-dominated sports and/or prioritize physical activity over other responsibilities, they challenge gender norms. These findings are consistent with a recently developed framework for gender transformative health promotion.