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Social Focus on Women and Men 2002

chapter eight: Social Participation

Lifestyles and the ways in which we spend our work and leisure time have changed significantly over the last 30 years. The rapid advances in technology have affected many aspects of our lives enabling greater mobility, access to information, and increased choice in leisure and entertainment. Technological advances have transformed our workplaces, reshaped our domestic lives with labour saving devices and opened up new opportunities for global communication. However, not everyone has the same access to technological advances and some changes have brought different pressures to bear on our domestic and social lives.

In this context, there is interest in the extent to which we interact with people inside and outwith the home, how we get involved in the local community, and society more generally.

Social participation

The Scottish Household Survey asks people how involved they feel in the community overall. The results for the period January 2001 to June 2001 show that 74 per cent of adults aged 16 years and older feel 'not very involved' or ' not [involved] at all'. This pattern is consistent with earlier results for 2000, and it is also apparent that there are no significant differences between the perceptions of community involvement of men and women.

Participation in your neighbourhood can also be measured by the interaction with friends and relatives in your neighbourhood.

For these purposes neighbourhood is defined as the street you live in and the streets nearby for urban areas and the local area for rural localities. Based on the Scottish Household Survey 2001 over the period January 2001 to June 2001, overall 93 per cent of people agree or strongly agree that if they were alone and needed help they could rely on someone in their neighbourhood to help them. Women are more likely to 'strongly agree' - 67 per cent of women compared with 59 per cent of men. When compared with data for 2000, the percentage of both women and men strongly agreeing in 2001 show an increase of around
5 per cent.

When asked if their home was empty, could they rely on one of their friends or relatives in their neighbourhood to keep an eye on it, 95 per cent of people agree or strongly agree. Again, women are more likely to strongly agree with this statement (70 per cent of women compared with 63 per cent of men). This remains unchanged when compared with data for 2000.

When asked if they could turn to friends and relatives in their neighbourhood for advice or support, 89 per cent of adults agree they could, with 62 per cent of women strongly agreeing, and 54 per cent of men strongly agreeing.

The Scottish Household Survey gathers data on the contact adults have with friends and family outside their own household by going to visit, inviting people to their home, or contact via the telephone. There is very little difference between women and men in the contact with people outside the household - overall women are more likely to have contact with family than men, although the differences are fairly small.

Volunteering

An indicator of the extent of community involvement is the extent to which members of the public are involved in voluntary clubs, groups and organisations. The Scottish Household Survey 2001 indicates that 25 per cent of people living in Scotland gave up time to volunteer in the community. More women than men have given their time to voluntary organisations in the last 12 months: of those who had volunteered, 62 per cent were women. Of those who volunteer, 69 per cent volunteered for one group, club or organisation only.

People are most likely to give their time to volunteer (in an unpaid capacity) for organisations or charities working with older people, working with people with disabilities, working in the area of health (e.g. hospitals, hospices, clinics), working with young people, church or religious activities, or sports activities. Men and women are, broadly, equally likely to work with people with disabilities, work with young people, church or religious activities, and work in support of the environment. Women are more likely than men to be involved with working with older people, working with vulnerable people, working in health and playgroups. The only activity where men are more likely to be volunteers is the arts, culture and sports activities.

In terms of the capacity in which people volunteer, the only significant difference between men and women is that men are more likely to be involved on the management committee, whereas women are more likely than men to be involved in fundraising.

Religion

According to the Scottish Household Survey, the most common religion in Scotland in 2001 (January to June) was the Church of Scotland, with 26 per cent of women and 22 per cent of men belonging to it. A further 9 per cent of women and 7 per cent of men belong to the Roman Catholic Church. Thirteen per cent of women and 14 per cent of men claim to currently belong to no religious bodies or organisations.

Of the people not belonging to any religious organisation, 8 per cent of women and 8 per cent of men were brought up outside of any religious denomination (however, it should be noted that 40 per cent of women and 33 per cent of men declined to provide information on the religious denomination they were raised in).

Internet access

Digital technologies are creating swift, lasting and widespread change across many aspects of the world today. The Scottish Executive, along with the UK Government has already put in place a range of initiatives and schemes that will develop access, skills, content, and involve communities, and contribute to the closure of the 'digital divide'. These include the New Opportunities Fund, learndirect scotland, the adult literacy strategy, e-employability, digital champions, National Grid for Learning for Communities, Uplift, Glasgow cyber cafes, and the voluntary sector web portal.

Over £100 million is being spent on Scotland's National Grid for Learning initiatives which will by 2003 connect all Scottish schools and libraries to the internet; provide e-mail addresses for all Scottish teachers and pupils; double the number of modern computers in Scottish schools; and increase the information and communication technology skill levels of both pupils and teachers.

In Scotland today almost 38 per cent of private Scottish households own a personal computer and around 25 per cent of households have access to the internet from home (Scottish Household Survey 2001). Many people access the internet other than through their own PC - latest Scottish Household Survey data shows that for over the period January 2001 to June 2001 an estimated 29 per cent of people in Scotland aged 5 years and older have access to the internet for personal use. Of those with internet access, 53 per cent are men and 47 per cent are women. This access is from home, work, school or other educational institution, or other public access points such as internet cafes and libraries. There are no significant differences between men and women as to where they access the internet, with 85 per cent of men and 81 per cent of women accessing the internet from their own homes. A further 17 per cent of men and 18 per cent of women access the internet, for personal use, from an educational institution; and 16 per cent of men and 13 per cent of women access the internet for personal use at work.

Use of local public amenities

Another aspect of social and community participation is whether people use local public facilities. The Scottish Household Survey 2000 gathered data on frequency of use and satisfaction with public libraries, public parks and open spaces, museums and art galleries, swimming pools, and sports/leisure centres. In terms of the frequency of use, there are no real differences between use by women and men. The exceptions are public libraries and swimming pools - slightly more men than women have not used a public library or swimming pool within the last year - 58 per cent of men have not used a public library in the last year; and 65 per cent of men have not used a swimming in the last year.

This pattern is repeated in the satisfaction with public facilities. There are no major differences between recorded satisfaction of women and men, although more women than men are 'very or fairly satisfied' with public libraries (38 per cent and 32 per cent for women and men respectively); and more women than men are 'very or fairly' satisfied with swimming pools (35 per cent and 30 per cent for women and men respectively).

Participation in sports activities

Data from Sportscotland shows that in the period 1998-2000, 65 per cent of the adult population of Scotland (aged 16 and older) participated in some type of sport or physical recreation. Over the last 12 years, participation rates among men have increased slightly (from 67 per cent to 70 per cent). However, women's participation has risen over the same period from 50 per cent to 60 per cent (Chart 8.1).

Chart 8.1: Trends in participation in all sports 1987-89 to 1998-00: Adults
Percentage

Women's participation is dominated by four activities - walking (32 per cent), swimming (26 per cent), keep fit/aerobics (13 per cent), and dancing (12 per cent). Men participate in a much wider range of sports, with twelve sports having participation rates of above 5 per cent (compared with six such sports for women). The four most popular sports activities for men are walking (29 per cent), football (20 per cent), swimming (19 per cent), and golf (17 per cent).

There is little difference between participation rates among boys and girls aged 8 to 18 years (98 per cent for boys compared with 96 per cent for girls). Swimming is the most popular sport for girls of both primary and secondary school age. For boys of both age groups, football is the most common. If participation in school physical education lessons is excluded, walking and cycling are the most common activities for girls, while cycling and football are the most common for boys.

Newspaper readership and demographics

Newspaper readership can give an indication of the views of the population, as it is one of the main ways that the population is informed about national and local affairs. Newspaper readership is an estimate of the number of people that read a newspaper. This will be up to as much as three times greater than newspaper circulation, as more people read papers than buy them or have them delivered. Data for the year to December 2000 shows nearly 5 million daily and Sunday newspapers are read in Scotland per day. The most popular newspapers in terms of readership are the Daily Record and/or Sunday Mail, and the Sun and/or News of the World, with a readership figure of over 3.5 million. These are the most popular newspapers for both women and men (Chart 8.2).

Chart 8.2: Readership of daily/Sunday newspapers in Scotland, January - December 2000
Thousands

Data for the year to July 2001 shows for the population aged 15 and over, newspaper readership stands at 106 per cent - people read more than one newspaper (for women the rate is 95 per cent while that for men is 118 per cent). Of the papers read, 36 per cent of the population aged 15 and older read the Daily Record (39 per cent of the male population and 33 per cent of the female population), and a further 25 per cent read The Sun (31 per cent for men and 21 per cent for women) (Chart 8.3).

Chart 8.3: Readership of newspapers in Scotland as a proportion of the population, July 2000 - June 2001
Percentage

Division of household tasks

Data collected by the British Household Panel Survey 1999 shows that of couples in Scotland, women still remain responsible for many of the household chores. More than half of women in Scotland claim to be mostly responsible for cooking, cleaning, washing and ironing, and grocery shopping. In addition, 64 per cent of women claim to have the main responsibility for childcare (compared with 2 per cent for men). Of these household tasks, the highest percentage for men is for cooking, with 20 per cent of men claiming it is mostly their responsibility (Table 8.4).

Table 8.4: Division of household tasks between couples in Scotland, 1999
Row percentages

Source: British Household Panel Survey 1999
Notes: Data was collected between September 1998 and March 1999. Data is un-weighted.

Of those asked, more men than women claimed that they shared the responsibility for household tasks. This perhaps indicates differences in perceptions between men and women of sharing household tasks. The only area where the same percentage of men and women said responsibility is shared is for childcare.

Women in public appointments

Too few women, people from ethnic minority backgrounds, disabled people, people from varied socio-economic groups, young people and people in full-time employment apply to serve on public bodies.

At 1st December 2001 women accounted for 32 per cent of appointees. The proportion of female chairs was only 21 per cent. The current targets inherited from Scottish Office Ministers are to increase by 2002 the proportion of women appointees to 50 per cent and the proportion of female chairs to 35 per cent.

Transport

In 1999, almost two-thirds (63 per cent) of households had one or more cars, and driving was the most common means of transport to work for both men and women. Of the employed population aged 16 and over, 61 per cent of men drive to work, compared with 49 per cent of women. Women are more likely than men to walk to work (18 per cent of women compared with 10 per cent of men) or take the bus (15 per cent of women compared with 9 per cent of men).

Of people aged 17 or over, two-thirds (64 per cent) hold a full driving licence and a further 6 per cent hold a provisional licence. There are differences between the sexes: 77 per cent of men aged 17 or older hold a full licence, compared with 53 per cent of women. Across all age groups, more men than women hold a full drivers licence, and in general, the difference between the sexes increases with age (Chart 8.5).

Chart 8.5: Persons aged 17 and older, who hold a full drivers licence, by age group
Percentage

Of all people aged 17 or older who hold a full drivers licence and still drive, 88 per cent drive for social or personal reasons, and 52 per cent drive to or from work. More men drive for a living, on business, or to and from work, whereas more women drive for personal or social reasons.

Of those people aged 17 and older who do not hold a full UK driving licence or who never drive, the main reasons for not driving are that they have never learnt to drive (14 per cent); they do not hold a driving licence (12 per cent); or they have no interest in driving (10 per cent). However, 31 per cent of people give no particular reason as to why they do not drive. The percentage that said it is too expensive is highest for those aged under 30 years, and the percentage giving a health related reason is higher for the older age groups. More women than men have never learnt to drive, are too nervous or lack the confidence to drive, while more men than women cited no car, the cost of running a car, or health reasons for not driving (Chart 8.6).

Chart 8.6: Reasons for not driving (persons aged 17 and older)
Percentage

Research commissioned by the Scottish Executive has borne out the findings of other studies in relation to patterns and modes of transport. In terms of travel patterns, there are a number of differences between women and men. Women have a greater overall reliance on public transport and on walking, and generally travel shorter distances than men. Women's travel is more likely to be linked to caring and family responsibilities, while men are more likely to travel for business and leisure. Women were also found to have a lower level of access to private transport, to have different purposes for trips, and to make more 'encumbered' journeys (for example, with children). Influences other than gender on travel patterns and the level of reliance on public are factors such as income, age, lone parenthood and disability.

Although the differences between women and men in terms of their journey patters are closing, they are only doing so very slowly.

References and further reading

Scottish Household Survey
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/shs

Digital Scotland
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/digitalscotland

Sports participation in Scotland 2000 Sportscotland Research Digest no. 84
http://www.sportscotland.org.uk

Household Transport: some Scottish Household Survey results Scottish Executive statistical bulletin Trn/2001/1 January 2001
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00062-00.asp

Public Bodies: Proposals for Change, Scottish Executive June 2001
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/government/pbreview.pdf

Public Appointments Annual Report 2002, Scottish Executive
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/government/publicappoint/ndpb.pdf

Newspaper Readership and Demographics
http://www.recordmail-advertising.co.uk/readership1a.htm

Seven years in the lives of British families, evidence on the dynamics of social change from the British Household Panel Survey, 2000 Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex
http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk

Women and Transport: Moving Forward, Scottish Executive 2000
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/cru/kd01/blue/transport-03.htm

Contacts

Telephone contact points for further information relating to Chapter 8, Lifestyles:

Scottish Executive

Jill Morton, Chapter Author
0131 244 0443
jillian.morton@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

Esta Torkington, Transport Statistics
0131 244 1457
esta.torkington@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

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