Culture consumption in Sweden: The stability of gender differences

This paper explores the salience of gender in shaping culture consumption patterns in Sweden, independently of other socio-economic factors. The analyses focus on two indicators of culture consumption: highbrow leisure activities and lowbrow TV watching preferences. The findings indicate that gender differences in culture consumption are considerable and that they are stable independently of the effect of education, occupational class position, age, family status, urban status, and income. Women are more active in the sphere of highbrow culture than men, while men have higher average scores on the lowbrow consumption index. This finding stands also when looking at sub-categories in the sample. These gender differences are at odds with current explanations of differences in cultural consumption, pointing to the need for further theoretical and empirical explorations of the way gender shapes consumption in interaction with class, education, and other factors.