In Quebec, 87% of mothers aged 25 to 54 with at least one child under 25 are working. This is more than anywhere in Canada, the employment rate being for example 80% in Ontario, 79% in British Columbia and 78% in Alberta.
Posted at 10:34 a.m.
Updated at 11:03 a.m.
This is what data from the Institute of Statistics of Quebec published Tuesday reveals. At the right time, in this week of broadcast of the documentary Alphas featuring a few men and a few women arguing that many women would aspire to a life at home under good male protection.
Such cases exist, but statistically, they remain marginal in Quebec where we are witnessing the opposite movement.
In the four provinces studied, fathers certainly have a higher employment rate than mothers – in Quebec, it is six percentage points higher.
The Quebec Statistics Institute, however, notes that there is an “appreciable increase in the employment rate of mothers in Quebec.”
“For 15 years, the employment rate of mothers has seen a notable increase in Quebec: it rose from 79% in 2008 to 87% in 2023. Among mothers whose youngest child is less than 6 years old, the rate employment increased even more: it went from 72% in 2008 to 82% in 2023.
Single-parent mothers and immigrant mothers have also particularly invested in the workplace.
“Single-parent mothers saw their employment rate increase by around 10 points between 2008 and 2023. This reached 86%, which is close to the rate observed among single-parent fathers and mothers in a couple (87% ). »
As for the employment rate of immigrant mothers in Quebec, it increased by 15 points between 2008 and 2023 and reached approximately 77%.
Finally, the Quebec Statistics Institute notes “a considerable disparity between mothers depending on their level of education”.
Thus, the employment rate of mothers increased only among those with postsecondary or university education. The employment rate of mothers with a high school diploma or less has remained stable over the past 15 years. It stands at around 71% in 2023, which is almost 20 points lower than that of more educated mothers.
