March 6, 2025
Then and Now: A 30-Year Look at Families and Work in Canada
Highlights from a resource about families and work in Canada
March 8 is International Women’s Day, a time to recognize and celebrate women’s achievements and to highlight the ongoing inequalities they face in society. Gender roles have been gradually changing over the last several decades in Canada. While women are spending an increasing amount of time on paid work, they are spending less time on unpaid work at home. At the same time, survey data suggest that men are increasingly participating in certain household tasks.
The following highlights from the Family Work installment of our Families Count series show that, although progress has been made toward gender equality, inequities remain that affect family wellbeing in Canada.
The gender gap in labour force participation is closing but at a slower pace
Although the gender gap in labour force participation rates has narrowed considerably over the last half-century, there has been relatively little change since the early 2000s.1 The gap decreased from 32.0 to 8.5 percentage points between 1976 and 2024, but there was little change since 2003, when the gap stood at 10.4 percentage points.
Most mothers of young children are working for pay
The gender gap in the labour force participation of parents with young children has narrowed since the 1970s, particularly among the core working-age group aged 25 to 54. In 2024, 79.1% of mothers in this age group and with children under age six participated in the labour market, up from 65.9% in 1994, and more than double the rate in 1976 (35.8%).2 Among fathers with young children, the labour force participation rate remained stable between 1976 (97.2%) and 2024 (96.2%).
Women are breadwinners in a growing percentage of couple families
Data show that women provide more than 50% of total family income in a growing share of couple families. In 2022, women earned the majority of the couple’s employment income in one-third (32.8%) of different-gender couple census families, up from 25.9% in 2000.3 During the same period, the proportion in which women were sole breadwinners (i.e., receiving 100% of income) increased from 7.8% to 10.7% among different-gender couple families.
Women are more likely than men to work part-time to care for children
The proportion of men in Canada aged 25 to 44 who say they work part time either to care for children or because of other personal or family responsibilities has nearly tripled since 1997.4 However, women were more than four times as likely as men to cite these reasons in 2024.
1 Statistics Canada. (2024, January 5). Table 14-10-0327-01 Labour force characteristics by sex and detailed age group, annual. https://doi.org/10.25318/1410032701-eng
2 Institut de la statistique du Québec. (2025, February 17). Labour market indicators, results by family situation and sex, 25-54 years, Québec, Ontario, Canada, 1976-2024 (in French only). https://statistique.quebec.ca/en/produit/tableau/labour-market-indicators-results-by-family-situation-and-sex-25-54-years-quebec-ontario-canada#tri_regn=2&tri_sexe=1
3 Statistics Canada. (2024, June 27). Table 11-10-0029-01 Couple census families by wife’s contribution to couple’s employment income and by number of children. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1110002901
4 Statistics Canada. (2024, January 5). Table 14-10-0029-01 Part-time employment by reason, annual (x 1,000). https://doi.org/10.25318/1410002901-eng
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