Gender and Leisure Research: The "Codification of Knowledge"

Abstract

This article is concerned with the interrelationships between gender, power, and knowledge in the construction of leisure theory. The article reviews a series of phases toward gender scholarship in leisure studies, comparing these models of chronological transformation with similar unilinear historical models from the sociology of education. International refereed journals from leisure and tourism studies are then analyzed as sites and processes of knowledge construction, legitimation, and reproduction. An audit of sex segregation in the authorship of 1,784 articles from a sample of six leisure and tourism journals revealed that, during the period 1982-1997 the ratio of male authors to female authors of refereed articles was four to one. Comparative research of journals in cognate subject fields identified a range of good practices in relation to promoting a more inclusive approach toward gender representation. None of these practices had been adopted by any of the leisure and tourism journals audited. The "codification of knowledge" is revealed as a product of both structural and cultural power, and, as such, a combination of material and discursive analysis is required to examine the sociocultural nexus of knowledge production, legitimation, and reproduction.

Keywords:

• Feminism Gender Knowledge Leisure Poststructural Theory Publishing Research Tourism Women