Gender inequalities in care-giving in Canada

In Canada today, as in the past, men and women devote different amounts of time and effort to providing health care to their family and in the broader community. This paper examines "the social distinction between masculinity and femininity" in care-giving. Issues of gender inequality in care-giving have the potential to affect the formal health care system as the burden of caring will increase over the next few decades with the aging of society. This increase in need for care is occurring at a time when primary care providers--women--have additional demand on their time. Canadian society has been facing a series of social, demographic and economic shifts such as a higher divorce rate, two-income families, women's increasing professional commitments and first pregnancies at later ages, these factors may not affect women's willingness to care for others. However women may need support to provide the care. Assuming present trends, increasing need for families to care for elderly relatives may be inevitable. Perhaps society will recognize this need and provide support to those providing informal care. This could take the form of allowing individuals more time to provide care through child care leave, leave to care for parents and job-sharing. Support to those providing informal care might also be facilitated through community support services such as respite care, household maintenance, psychological support to care-givers, support groups, informal networks within a community and consideration of unconventional support methods.