Growing gap between the time more and less educated parents spend on childcare

An analysis of how much time mothers and fathers spent on childcare in the period 1965-2012 in 11 Western countries shows that, on average, both mothers and fathers have been spending more time directly caring for their children. But the increase is greater for more-educated parents, widening the gap in childcare investment between more and less educated parents.

Giulia Dotti Sani from Collegio Carlo Alberto (Italy) and Judith Treas from the University of California Irvine (USA) looked at data from a large time-use study involving 68,532 mothers and 53,739 fathers in the USA, Canada, the UK, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain and Slovenia.

Across all countries, mothers in 1965 spent an average of 54 minutes daily on childcare; this figure increased to 104 minutes by 2012. Fathers in 1965 spent an average of 16 minutes daily on childcare, increasing to 59 minutes by 2012.

In 1965, more and less educated mothers across all countries devoted the same amount of time per day to childcare on average, but by the end of the period the gap had risen to 29 minutes per day on average. In 1965, more and less educated mothers across all countries devoted the same amount of time per day to childcare on average, but by the end of the period it had risen to 29 minutes per day on average.

The data for individual countries were not always statistically significant because of small sample sizes. But in no country did educated parents do less childcare than less educated parents, and in no country did the gap between more educated and less educated parents decrease. In only one country, France, has the time invested by mothers in childcare actually decreased on average (but less for more educated mothers). In Slovenia, the time invested by mothers has changed very little. France, Norway and Slovenia all show only very small increases in time invested by fathers.

Many people have observed a rise in “intensive mothering”, and these data suggest that intensive mothering is a phenomenon mostly among more educated mothers. At the same time, we have seen the rise of “new fatherhood”, also more strongly among more educated fathers. Parenting has become a priority valued by both parents. This is perhaps surprising because, over the same period, women’s working hours have increased and men’s working hours have stayed the same, whilst more educated parents have more opportunities to buy childcare.