PRESS RELEASE

Women Still Do Most Housework, Have Most Time Stress

November 5, 1998, Halifax, Nova Scotia—Although women have doubled their rate of participation in the paid labour force in the last four decades, they still do twice as much unpaid household work as men, a ratio that has hardly changed since 1961. In 1961 Nova Scotian women did 68% of household work; in 1992 it was down to 66%, while their share of paid work hours rose from 31% to 39% in the same period.

Nova Scotian women spend about three times as much time cooking and washing dishes as men, and nearly seven times as much time cleaning house and doing laundry. On average, Nova Scotian women spend about 2 hours more per day than men doing unpaid household work. Even when both spouses are employed full-time, full-time employed mothers spend an hour and a half more per day on unpaid household work than full-time employed fathers.

Longer combined paid and unpaid work hours have produced an absolute decline in free time for employed women throughout Canada. Fully one-third of full-time employed married mothers suffer from "extreme levels of time stress" according to Statistics Canada surveys, and 70% feel "rushed on a daily basis".

In 1961 only 25% of Canadian mothers with infants under age 2 were in the paid labour force. By 1995 that figure had jumped to 62%. On an average weekday, the surveys show, working mothers put in about 11 &fraq14; hours of work: 7 hours for pay, 2 &fraq14; hours on domestic chores, 1 hour of primary child care, and 50 minutes shopping.

Even weekends provide little respite. Working mothers average 7 &fraq12; hours a day work on Saturdays and Sundays, including more than 3 hours of domestic chores and 1 &fraq34; of primary child care, plus a major Saturday shopping trip.

The GPI study recommends a provincial conference, representing business, workers, government, and women's groups to discuss more flexible workplace arrangements for both men and women, including flexible hours, job-sharing and working from home. The report points to studies that show family-friendly work options actually increase productivity while easing the stress of juggling household and paid work duties. Such a conference could lead to a code of "best practices" towards which businesses might aspire, and annual awards for progress in this direction.

Press release and background information (9 pages) 176K PDF

The Economic Value of Unpaid Housework and Child Care in Nova Scotia (summary 22 pages) 104K PDF

The Economic Value of Unpaid Housework and Child Care in Nova Scotia (full report 123 pages) 844K PDF