Census change ignores women’s unpaid work, advocates say

A changed long-form census could overlook women's work, advocates told a Parliamentary committee. CBC

A voluntary long-form census will fail to capture the housework usually done by women, a women’s advocacy group told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.

Earlier this year Statistics Canada cut question 33, a three-part query asking how much time Canadians spend on domestic chores, childcare, and caring for the elderly, from the draft of the long-form survey.

But when the government scrapped the mandatory questionnaire in favour of the optional National Household Survey, debates on the voluntary survey took the spotlight.

Months later, women’s groups are asking the government to reinstate the unpaid work question.

Members of two Canadian women’s groups told a House of Commons committee Tuesday that removing the question would make their work supporting female caregivers even more difficult, and could result in more women falling into poverty.

Samantha Spady, head of advocacy for the Canadian Federation of University Women, said census data shows that caring for the elderly puts financial, mental, and physical strain on women.

Spady said that because women do two-thirds of the unpaid work in Canada their pensions suffer because they spend less time at the office.

In single-parent households unpaid work can add up to serious financial problems, Spady said.

“The burden of this unpaid work responsibility ends up putting them in a more impoverished place in their elder years,” she added.

“Given the aging population and no current commitments for increased numbers of childcare spaces, women will continue to take on the majority of care work in this country.”

Irene Mathyssen, a New-Democrat MP, pointed out that women faced difficulties building up their resumes that men often didn’t.

“Statistics Canada evaluated that women dropped out of apprenticeship programs more often, not because of credential reasons or a better job, but because of family responsibilities,” she said.

But Jane Badets, a director with Statistics Canada, downplayed the significance of the long-form census’ data, saying that data from the General Social Survey was actually more useful for women’s groups.

“What we heard was, it was the General Social Survey—that data—that users were using, and it was a much more comprehensive and richer set of information,” said Badets. “The general social survey rotates through topics such as family and victimization over a five-year cycle.”

Ivan Fellegi, who began the General Social Survey when he was head of Statistics Canada, said he did not think it was a sufficient measure of social data.

“I initiated it when I became chief statistician because I thought that generally our social statistics were awfully underdeveloped,” Fellegi said. “And the General Social Survey was really, in a way, a poor person’s answer to the paucity of social information generally,” he said.

Statistics Canada could not afford a full-fledged social survey, but they hoped they could gain interest and funds over time. It worked to an extent, but the survey still isn’t thorough enough, he said. “The GSS was really as much a teaser as it was an attempt to answer every question.”

But Sébastien Goupil, a director at Status of Women Canada, said that while the organization uses the General Social Survey and other surveys for their work, it still relies on Statistics Canada as a source of authority.

Spady and the representatives from a French association on women’s education and social action said Statistics Canada did not consult them.