Parliamentarians’ perspectives on parenthood and politics in Canada’s House of Commons

Abstract Canada’s members of parliament (MPs) work long hours, travel frequently, and spend weeks away from home each year. Research on gender and politics finds that parliamentary work is not designed to accommodate those with caring obligations, usually women. In this paper, we leverage a survey of sitting Canadian MPs conducted in 2022 to assess whether women MPs report greater difficulty combining a political career with family life and to identify patterns of MP support for parenthood accommodations in parliament. Drawing on responses to closed- and open-ended questions, we argue that women MPs experience the challenge of reconciling work and family more acutely than do men MPs. When it comes to support for family-friendly policies in parliament, however, we find that party is more strongly correlated with MPs’ attitudes than gender. Most respondents are supportive of accommodating parenthood, but resistance appears among Conservative MPs, particularly for accommodations affecting core parliamentary operations.