In this labor festival, a survey carried out by the start-up Wecasa in partnership with the YouGov Institute stinks of the spotlight on a reality that is not very approached but yet central in our lives: access to free time. More than its quantity, it is the way it is used which reveals deep social, gendered and territorial fractures.
First education: 60% of French people believe they have enough free time on a daily basis. But this figure masks significant disparities. Among women aged 35 to 44, there are only 46% to share this feeling, while 39% consider their insufficient free time. This observation becomes even more striking when we observe the effective use of this time. In this age group, more than one in two women (52%) declares to spend the majority of its unwelcome hours to do household tasks or races.
The way this time is used reveals another fracture line. For 36% of women, the majority of free time is absorbed by household tasks or races. Among women aged 35 to 44, this charge reaches a summit: 52% of them say they spend most of their free time to these tasks. As a comparison, only 24% of men evoke this constraint as a major brake. Territorial differences further strengthen this imbalance. In Île-de-France, 29% of women declare that their free time is monopolized by domestic chores, compared to 31 to 35% elsewhere. In municipalities with less than 20,000 inhabitants, this figure climbs up to 80% if all the obstacles mentioned are taken into account.
Give meaning to the expression “Take time for yourself”
But what do we really put behind “free time”? For 42% of French people, it is a moment without obligations, a space of freedom. This vision is even more marked in the 55s and over (49%). Others see it above all the opportunity to practice leisure (20%) or to rest (17%). And here again, gender differences are obvious: 25% of men associate their free time with leisure against only 15% of women, a sign that the latter are more subject to domestic constraints.
The territory also plays a key role in the way of accessing this time for oneself. If 53% of women in Île-de-France define their free time as a moment without constraints, they are only 37% in the Northeast to share this vision. A difference of 16 points which highlights the impact of living conditions, mental load and access to services.
For Antoine Chatelain, co -founder of Wecasa, these figures attest to the fact that many French are not completely masters of their time in the professional and private sphere. “”(L) e true free time – the one that resources, rests and allows you to blow – remains a privilege. It is largely compromised for many women, including mothers, active, and those living outside the major metropolises“. Make help services accessible throughout France would be a first response to restore a form of balance.
Far from being a simple detail, the unequal distribution of free time raises a major problem: how to rethink the distribution of invisible work and finally grant it the recognition which it deserves on the societal level? It becomes imperative to in depth our social organization in order to offer all real spaces of breathing. What was due to comfort or privilege yesterday is today an essential requirement for a fairer and more balanced society.