Is there a gender hobby gap?

“I could have spent my whole life mastering a skill, but I have no gleaming trophies, no artistic masterpieces and I certainly don’t drink my morning coffee from a mug I made in a pottery class.”

Ah, the weekend. The oh-so-sweet and bountiful weekend. It’s a generous time for us full-timers. A 48-hour rendezvous with your friend named Freedom to spend however your heart desires. During these Saturdays and Sundays, the world is your oyster. But as a woman in her twenties without any real hobbies, I often find myself wondering what there is to actually do.

Now, it’s not like I sit there staring at the ceiling waiting for Monday to roll back around. These two days of liberty are well and truly filled to the brim. But the pastimes I consider pleasurable – hot girl walks, Aperols, café hopping and chitchatting – are often dismissed as worthwhile ways to spend my time by my male counterparts.

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As a result, I find myself wondering whether my preferred weekend activities are worthwhile pursuits. Could I be making better use of my free time? It’s the invalidation that makes me question my pastimes. “Those aren’t hobbies, they’re just mindless things you do every weekend anyway,” is the response I hear when I’m asked how I prefer to spend my Saturday afternoons.

It makes me worry that I’ve wasted my time. I could have spent my whole life mastering a skill, but I have no gleaming trophies, no artistic masterpieces and I certainly don’t drink my morning coffee from a mug I made in a pottery class. And when I look at my female peers, it seems to be a similar situation. So why do we feel underrepresented when it comes to free-time activities and is there a gender hobby gap?

Any perceived gender differences regarding interests come down to two factors, and the first of those is time. Despite every person on planet Earth having the same 24 hours in a day, the breakdown of each person’s time is different. And ladies, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there’s an unfortunate surprise when it comes to our free time – we have less free time on average compared to the opposite sex.

According to the ABS’s latest Time Use Survey, we girly pops don’t get afforded the same amount of luxurious leisure time. We’re spending an extra hour per day on unpaid domestic work than our male counterparts and it takes an unfair piece of our free time pie. So as the pink tax stabs us in the back yet again and bites into our free time, the pastime divide starts to make itself clear. The stats don’t lie; time is not of the essence for us. 

Whether we like it or not, these additional duties take more from us than we probably realise. TikTok user Sari Shryack believes being a woman can cost us, and the price is emotional and creative labour. The ABS’s data tells us we do more of the cooking, cleaning, groceries, washing and preparing ourselves and others, and all of this takes a toll.

@not_sorry_art Replying to @dumb.laney the women don’t have hobbies thing really bums me out just because it’s not building miniature trains don’t mean it’s not valid #womendonthavehobbies ♬ original sound – Sari Shryack

“It drains the same resource that hobbies tend to pull from,” she says. So to put it simply, we don’t have the time or the energy. The topic for discussion as we enter part two of this gender hobby dissection is, drumroll please, value.

As I already mentioned, there are a few fun activities I do consider to be my hobbies but their merit has often been questioned. Throwing on my Lululemon for a Bondi to Bronte, spritzing the house down at any rooftop bar and engaging in a little bit of friendly gossip are just some of the ways I like to spend my time. But it’s these activities that tend to be met with “That’s not a hobby” from the men in my life.

@daliaelichavez Like is my hobby not interesting enough for you, Kyle? Should we try underwater hair braiding??😂💀💀 #fyp #comedy #girls #hobbies #foryou #relatable ♬ Reading Rainbow Theme Song – Reading Rainbow

As female hobbies are devalued, the consequence is women and girls are less likely to talk about them. But let’s try and keep it optimistic! Just because our hobbies can be criticised and dismissed, it’s not like we don’t have them. 

Cue the literal dictionary definition of a hobby: ‘An activity done regularly in one’s leisure time for pleasure’. And would you look at that, it’s leisure time for pleasure, treasure. Nothing more, nothing less. There’s absolutely no mention of working your little ass off to become the Guinness World Record holder of whatever your chosen field is.

There are no medals, no awards, no one-upping, just time spent doing whatever brings you joy. After speaking to some twenty-something women in the name of qualitative gender hobby research, I realised we had a similar shared experience.

“To be blatantly honest, my brother, dad and guy friends have all taken the mickey out of my more feminine hobbies,” says Elise, 26. “I can literally hear their voices say to me and my friends, ‘All you girls do is sit around and talk, go and do something’. But that is our ‘do something’, that’s what we like doing.”

Charlotte, 23, says “What I consider hobbies mostly surrounds socialising and being around my friends. That’s what I love, in a sense, they’re my hobby.” Both women tell me they’ve heard the narrative of ‘A hobby is a sport or a skill you need to continuously improve at’, which is, of course, true if that tickles your fancy. But it’s missing a huge piece of the puzzle – the whole ‘do whatever makes you happy’ element.

So, the question of the gender hobby gap isn’t really a question at all. It’s not that women have fewer pastimes than men. They are well and truly there, alive and thriving. The fact of the matter is there are some people who don’t consider women’s hobbies to be what they are: hobbies. But whether men recognise our hobbies as hobbies, we’ll continue to do what we like, like true ladies of leisure.

For more on the gender hobby gap, head here.