Grandfatherhood and Leisure

Abstract

This paper explores the meanings and values attached to grandfatherhood for a range of older men who have recently retired from paid employment. It focuses on the spaces of grandfatherhood and the meanings they attach to time spent with grandchildren. The empirical study involved 12 semi‐structured interviews with grandfathers from diverse ethnic backgrounds. The data are examined from a theoretical position that recognises the significance of unequal gender relations within families in determining choice and autonomy and also the potential of leisure in the construction of identities that have the potential to challenge gender expectations and contribute to personal enrichment. This exploratory piece of work demonstrates the tensions, ambivalences and complexities of grandfatherhood for these men. The research suggests questions for future research that take into account differences across ethnicity whilst exploring shifting gender relations within families.

Keywords:

• leisure
• family
• gender
• grandfathers
• ethnicity
• ageing

Notes

1. The terms Indian Sikh and African Caribbean are used to describe the participants as this is the terminology agreed with the participants themselves. There is considerable debate about the usage of terminology to describe the minority ethnic group population as a whole or major segments of it. See Aspinall (2002) for an interesting discussion of this issue. We accept the suggestion made in this article that we use terminology that is precisely defined and acceptable to those being described.