Leisure Policy in France and the Reduction of Social Inequalities

In contemporary French society, despite extensive government intervention over the past half centuv, differential access to free time and to leisure facilities, together with differences in attitudes towards participation in cultural activities, remain good indicators of the social inequalities associated with gender, age, educational training, socio-occupational status and regional origins. Thejndings from recent government-sponsored national surueys and from other smaller scale empirical research highlight some of the most salient cultural inequalities persisting in leisure behaviour in France today. The evidence suggests that gender deferences, while still acting as one of the main discriminators in leisure behaviour, are most meaningful when considered in relation to age, correlated in turn with the level of educational attainment, family circumstances and socio-occupational status. A survey of the leisure policies pursued ly successive French governments in the post-war period demonstrates how the state has intervened increasingly with the overt objective of reducing social inequalities and breaking down the traditional cultural and economic barriers affecting access to leisure.