Between 1974 and 2010, total time spent on paid and unpaid work among city-dwellers decreased by 10 hours per week, with a difference between the genders: for men the decrease was in professional activity (linked to the rise in retired and unemployed men, as well as shorter work hours), while for women the decrease was in house-keeping work (linked to fewer stay-at-home women, automation of certain tasks and increasing externalisation of domestic production). City-dwellers eat outside of the home more often and eat prepared or partially-prepared meals. The gap between men's and women's schedules continues to narrow. The increase in leisure time was faster at the beginning of the period (+9 hours) and then slowed. This new free time was spent first on television, followed by video games, then digital activities, to the detriment of traditional forms of reading. Activities continued to become more individualised thanks to the spread of new technologies, allowing for a more personal approach to free time, as well as structural impacts such as the increase in people living alone. Ultimately, the increasing coverage of household tasks by the market and public sector and the resulting increase in leisure time occurred because women, partially freed from household tasks, have gone on to find employment in corresponding sectors (cleaning, personal services, childcare, recreational activities, food service) in positions that are generally precarious and require few qualifications. As income inequality increased from the 2000's, the system for organising the use of time may have evolved from a social-democratic type of system to a more free-market system, according to the typology proposed by Gershuny (2000).