Housework is a changing landscape. Photo: RetrodiskTote that pail: Men devoting more time to housework, but still lag behind women
OTTAWA (National Post, Don Mills, Ontario), March 4, 2008:
Canadians are spending more time looking after the country's ageing population, an analysis of unpaid work by Statistics Canada reveals.
In its latest release of 2006 census data, published Tuesday, Statistics Canada said the share of the population that spent time caring for senior citizens grew to 18.4% in 2006 from 16.5% in 1996.
More women than men were devoting time to caring for older Canadians, the study said. Just under 21% of women were doing so in 2006, compared to 15.7% of men.
Statistics Canada's definition of providing care for seniors includes time spent giving personal care to an elderly relative or helping an eldery neighbour with groceries for example. It does not include volunteer work.
Canadians aren't spending all of their spare time caring for seniors however. Very few were performing 10 hours or more a week -- 3.9% of women and 2.2% of men.
The report also provided an update of how much unpaid work Canadians are performing in general. The 2006 census showed that men are continuing to increase their unpaid hours spent caring for family or friends, or doing housework such as cooking and cleaning.
Between 1996 and 2006, the share of men participating in unpaid housework activities increased nationally by 3.5 percentage points to 87.9%, from 84.4%. But they can't pat themselves on the back too quickly, men still lag behind women. In 2006, almost 93% of women reported doing unpaid housework, about the same rate as in 1996.
Some women are cutting down on the number of hours they spend on unpaid work, however. In 1996, 24.6% of Canadian women dedicated 30 hours or more every week to unpaid labour activities. A decade later, that rate had dropped to 19.8%.
Fewer women also reported participating in childcare activities over the span of the decade which can be explained by a drop in the share of adults in private households with children, according to the report.
Those Canadians who were spending time on caring for children were spending more hours on it, Statistics Canada said. In 1996, about 45 % of women devoted 30 or more hours a week to childcare activities; in 2006, the share had risen to about 47%. Men were also putting in more time changing diapers, reading bedtime stories and other childcare activities -- in 2006 nearly 22% reported taking 30 hours or more a week for childcare, up from 17% a decade earlier.
Overall, 86% of women living in a private house with at least one child under 15 reported spending some time in unpaid childcare activities in 2006. That's been a relatively stable rate over the previous 10 years. For men, there was an increase to 79.5% from 77% in 1996.
Meagan Fitzpatrick, Canwest News Service
© 2008 Canwest Interactive, a division of Canwest Publishing Inc
