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Study: Sharing household tasks: Teaming up during the COVID-19 pandemic

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Released: 2021-02-15

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the organization of social and family life in Canada, including the division of household tasks between spouses.

To understand how couples shared household tasks during the pandemic, a new study released today compares the results of the third wave of the Canadian Perspectives Survey Series, which took place from June 15 to 21, 2020, with those of the 2017 General Social Survey on family.

According to the analysis in this new study, women continue to do most of the household tasks during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially when it comes to laundry and meal preparation. However, compared with 2017, their participation in these domestic tasks declined. About half of Canadians (48%) living in a couple reported that meal preparation was mostly done by women, compared with 56% in 2017.

Furthermore, women were more often satisfied with the distribution of household tasks when their spouse or partner was in charge of the task or when the task was shared equally. For example, more women were satisfied with the distribution of laundry when this task was mostly done by the man (76%) or shared equally (73%) than when they were mainly responsible for the task (57%).

Men, for their part, were more likely to contribute to household tasks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Compared to 2017, their participation increased. For example, the proportion of Canadians who reported that laundry was mostly done by the man doubled during the pandemic and went from 8% to 16%.

  Note to readers

Statistics Canada's new Canadian Perspectives Survey Series (CPSS) is a probabilistic panel survey based on a subsample of respondents selected from the Labour Force Survey. The CPSS is representative of the general population.

There have been five waves of the CPSS so far. This analysis is based on data from series 3 of the Canadian Perspectives Survey, which was conducted from June 15 to 21, 2020.

This analysis looks at people aged 20 years and older who, at the time of data collection, lived in the same household as their opposite-sex spouse or common-law partner. One person per household answered the survey.

Products

For more details, readers are invited to consult Sharing household tasks: Teaming up during the COVID-19 pandemic, available as part of the series StatCan COVID-19: Data to Insights for a Better Canada (Catalogue number45280001).

Statistics Canada is also launching its portal on Families, households and marital status statistics today. This portal brings together data, tools, articles and reports to provide Canadians with the latest information on families, households and marital status in Canada.

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; STATCAN.infostats-infostats.STATCAN@canada.ca) or Media Relations (613-951-4636; STATCAN.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.STATCAN@canada.ca).

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