Gender Differences in Desired Alone Time Among Canadian Parents of Young Children

We use the 2015 Canadian time use survey to analyze gender differences in desired alone time and the gender gap in parenting time for Canadian parents with at least one child under five years of age (N = 1120). Over half of mothers with young children report desiring more alone time compared to about one-third of fathers. For mothers, household work, parenting time, and market work are predictive of self-reporting desired alone time. Surprisingly, for fathers and mothers, the desire to have more alone time is not predicted by actual alone time. Compared to fathers, mothers with young children spend more time in parenting and household work but less time in market work and alone time. We find that the gender gap in parenting remains persistent and predominantly unexplained by characteristic differences between mothers and fathers. After controlling for those differences and other demographic factors, results suggest that mothers desire more alone time than fathers as parenting and household labor time increases. We argue that the amount and higher level of responsibilities and stress faced by mothers parenting young children lead to personal isolation resulting in a desire to spend time alone. Fathers who play a less central role in domestic work have more time and energy to engage in their jobs and desire less alone time. We discuss the theoretical and policy implications of these findings.