Men inch forward in housework, childcare, but still lag behind women: census
Canadian Press
SHERYL UBELACKER
March 4, 2008

…. While the divvying up of household tasks is far more equitable than in the days when Father brought home the bacon and Mother cooked it, women still continue to contribute more time to rearing kids, doing housework and caring for aging relatives than do men.

The 2006 census snapshot of unpaid work among Canadian families shows men inched up the amount of time spent on housework over the last decade, but still lagged behind women. However, men were increasing the amount of long hours spent caring for children and parents, taking some of the burden off women….

Sociologist Donna Lero, an expert in families and work at the University of Guelph in southwestern Ontario, says that while the proportion of men contributing to unpaid household work is on the upswing, the pace of change is definitely more creep than surge.

"What we've been seeing from Stats Can data from the General Social Surveys is that increasing numbers of men are participating more in housework and in child care - and they're spending more time in both, particularly more in the child care when there are children at home," Lero says.

"But it's true that women still spend more time in those roles and also have more responsibility. …

"Without a doubt, absolutely, women are doing the lion's share of work around the home," Aitken says. "But they're also in increasing numbers in the workforce as well."

The latest census figures show that the proportion of women in the labour force is indeed increasing over time. In 1996, 58.6 per cent of the labour force in Canada were women, compared to 60.5 per cent in 2001 and 61.6 per cent in 2006. The proportion of men has held relatively steady at about 72 per cent over the same period.

…."So the women are in retail jobs, they're in the banks, they're in the hospitals, they're in the schools and they're running their kids around and they're volunteering in the community."

Still, it's not only paid jobs, housework and looking after the kids that men and women must balance. For many among the burgeoning number of midlife Canadians, looking after aging parents and other relatives has been added to the mix….

In part that's due to higher education levels and earning power among Canadian women overall, which has pushed men to do more around the home, says Lero.

And as younger generations of Canadians raised by dual-earning parents enter adulthood, that evolution in work-sharing will likely gain momentum. Beaujot notes that when asked, both male and female university-aged students agree that household tasks and child care should be equally divided.

"Young people, I think, enter relationships (with) the men knowing they have to carry their weight in terms of the unpaid work because their female spouse is going to be working in the paid workforce as much as they are."

That may be true of younger adults, but Aitken says Canadian women overall are still struggling to keep too many balls in the air.

"We are still cleaning toilets, we are still washing dishes and we are still tucking the children in and we are still working nine to five."

"I think what is really surprising is how much women still do."