Motives for and Personal and Social Benefits of Airplane Piloting as a Serious Leisure Activity for Women

Using the work of Freysinger (1995), Deci and Ryan (1985, 2000), and Stebbins (2007) as sensitizing concepts, we use analytic inductive methods to analyze interview data from twenty-six women who had experience as private pilots. Emergent from our data were themes showing that differences in motivat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of contemporary ethnography 2016-02, Vol.45 (1), p.85-112
Main Authors: Shupe, Frances L., Gagné, Patricia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advantages
Air transportation
Data analysis
Ethnography
Females
Leisure
Males
Motivation
Pilots
Sex differences
Women
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Summary:Using the work of Freysinger (1995), Deci and Ryan (1985, 2000), and Stebbins (2007) as sensitizing concepts, we use analytic inductive methods to analyze interview data from twenty-six women who had experience as private pilots. Emergent from our data were themes showing that differences in motivations to learn to pilot were correlated with differing social benefits derived from flying. Moreover, our respondents discussed several personal and social benefits beyond durable serious leisure benefits. This exploratory study provides insight into women’s significant investment of time, money, and effort in a male-dominated leisure activity and suggests that women’s motivations for entering into serious leisure may differ from those of men and that when they do, the social benefits they derive vary as well. It suggests the need to revise motivation theories in light of the contextual and fluid nature of factors that prompt people to engage in leisure activities.
ISSN:0891-2416
1552-5414
DOI:10.1177/0891241614561676