Constructions of masculinity and femininity in daily life in gendered leisure activities

This study deals with constructions of masculinity and femininity in the context of gender reproduction in everyday life practices. Everyday life consists of actions and practices repeated by individuals consisting of routines. Leisure time, which is part of daily life, is the free time outside of work and study. When we look at the leisure time activities of men and women, we see that the activities in which individuals participate are determined by gender boundaries. The starting point of the research is that men go to coffeehouses as leisure time activities while women go to gold days. Coffeehouses and golden days are gendered spaces. Participation in these activities takes place in public and private spaces. Men define the boundaries of masculinity in coffeehouses in the public sphere. Women, on the other hand, gather in private spaces at homes on golden days. The gender roles exhibited by individuals while participating in gendered leisure time activities were examined in the context of the presentation of the self in daily life with reference to Goffman. The data of the study were collected as a result of interviews and observations with men who have been going to coffeehouses and women who have been going to women's gold/days for many years in Silivri, Bayrampaşa, Ümraniye and Pendik districts of Istanbul. Accordingly, although the structure of the leisure time activities that men and women participate in, the way they participate and the purposes for which they come together are different, gender patterns are evident in these activities. Men who go to coffeehouses from an early age or women who are together with people who go to gold day are in an area where gender is reinforced. In this way, gender reproduces itself in daily life.