Going the Distance: Household Dynamics and Commuting Patterns in Canada

Differences in men’s and women’s work journey patterns are well documented in the literature. Women are known to commute shorter distances to and from work, but exhibit more complex travel patterns that involve child and household-related tasks. In Canada, a country known for extensive temporary and permanent geographic labour mobility among individuals and households, delving further into the gender mobility gap is necessary. This presentation will focus on the effect of gender dynamics within the household on individual work-commuting patterns using the 2006 Canadian Census masterfile. We examine the impact of several household demographic (age, number of children, income, etc.) and socio-economic (education, industry) characteristics, and find a large, unexplained, gap between men and women in the average distances traveled to work. We propose that this gap persists despite women's increased participation in all aspects of the labour force because gendered social reproduction at the household level remains relatively unchanged and because gendered occupational structures continue to impact occupational choice and therefore dictate work journeys.