14 DAY TRIAL // Over the past couple of decades, the paradigm of families has slowly started to shift, in that it's no longer the social duty of a mother to attend to her child's education, if the father can do it. One of the main factors that have caused this change is the fact that employment options for women have improved, and they are now in a position to win more money than their spouses, which makes them the main providers in the household. An increased number of males take freelancing jobs and work from home, so it's only natural for them to keep an eye on the children as well.
“Professional pressure pushes young researchers to have a very productive lab. Seeing as my salary is greater than my husband's, we wanted to limit our financial losses so he became the primary caregiver,” Universite de Montreal School of Optometry professor Elvire Vaucher, who has taken on the role of the main provider for her family, while her husband works from their home, shares. When their second kid was born, she only stayed home for three months, rather than a year, and then resumed her work.
This type of situations has become increasingly common in the US, Canada, as well as in several dozens other developed countries, where women are very qualified and can easily beat a man in a direct competition for any position. The fact that discrimination still exists and that some companies only have men in upper functions has nothing to do with the actual knowledge that these ladies hold. In the developing world, lack of education keeps them down and away from well-paid jobs.
This is “an excellent change. Yet, there is still a lot of work to be done with the population and with employers so that men can fully take their place at home. Between 2001 and 2006, the number of fathers demanding paternity leave upon the birth or adoption of their child quadrupled,” sociologist Germain Dulac stresses.
However, “Women continue to be paid less for equal work. They are often assigned positions with less responsibility. And at home, the situation isn't much better – they continue to do the majority of the housework,” the expert underlines, adding that equality between men and women is stronger in Canada than anywhere else in North America.