Abstract

This article presents the results of a cross-sectional longitudinal analysis of time-budget data collected in Turin in 1979 and 2003, covering the period of the local society's transition from the industrial to the post-industrial phase. The focus is on the changing relationship between gender, social status and time allocation. Findings confirm results of other historical comparisons: a gender convergence in patterns of time use, particularly for highly-educated men and women. Instead there is no evidence of a change in the leisure/status gradient, which is one the main conclusions from Gershuny's work. This study's main results call for an explanation of the gender convergence that, from a symmetrical and opposite perspective, could be defined as persistence of gender differences/ inequalities. Discussion involves the limits of the main explanatory approaches: rational choice and social conditioning.