Quebec parents continue to move toward equality and generally see themselves as a team working for the child’s benefit, but mothers and fathers do not share the same perception regarding the distribution of the mental load, and fathers’ competence is more likely to be questioned than mothers’.
These are some of the key findings from a survey conducted by the firm SOM for the Regroupement pour la valorisation de la paternité (RVP) in conjunction with Fatherhood Week, which begins Monday and concludes on Father’s Day next Sunday, and of which La Presse Canadienne obtained a copy.
This survey reveals a marked shift among fathers, particularly among younger couples in Quebec, according to Raymond Villeneuve, executive director of the Regroupement: “What’s really interesting about the survey is that we see how far we’ve come, but at the same time, we see how far we still have to go. The idea of co-parenting among parents, particularly young parents, has gained traction: we want to team up, we want to work together, we’re communicating more and more, and we’re partnering to be involved with our children. However, he warns, we see that when it comes to sharing tasks and the mental load, there are still challenges.”
While issues related to co-parenting and teamwork are supported by over 90 per cent of respondents, more than a third of them (38 per cent) believe that the other co-parent’s work commitments prevent them from collaborating to the extent they would like.
“We need to think about this,” says Villeneuve. “Yes, there’s individual willingness—sometimes there are fathers who may be less willing to commit than others—but we also need to consider the societal factors that have led us to this point. Gender stereotypes still exist in 2026; this issue hasn’t been resolved. Conceptions of the roles of father, mother, man, and woman—there are still societal factors that keep us within those boundaries. We place much more social pressure on mothers than on fathers. In service environments, services are still, in 2026, much more geared toward mothers than fathers.”
However, he says, “what we really need to recognize is that the gaps are narrowing, especially among younger people. It’s really noticeable—there are definite underlying trends in this area. The vast majority of young parents truly want to be more egalitarian and share responsibilities more equitably. Fathers have really understood that they need to be present with their children, and that this has to start right from the beginning. Those messages—they’ve really gotten through.”
However, responses to the question of mental load vary significantly depending on the gender of the respondents, and the figures reveal that men still have a long way to go. For instance, when asked who bears the greater share of the mental load, three-quarters of women (77 per cent) say it is them, while nearly half of men (45 per cent) believe the burden is shared fairly equally, and only one-third of men (35 per cent) acknowledge that their partner bears a greater share.
“The mental load is the person who plans, the person who keeps track of appointments, the person who organizes, and it’s as if we’re having a hard time changing that,” acknowledges Villeneuve. “I feel like what really comes into play, on the one hand, are gender stereotypes. That is to say, what is a man, what is a woman, what is a father’s role, what is a mother’s role. We still have these ideas about what that means for a lot of people,” he continues. “And that’s also reflected in the societal messages we send to families. There’s still more social pressure on mothers than on fathers.”
“We need to change this and adopt a team-based, co-parenting approach that supports all family members so that the messages we send are different. Yes, we need to take action at the individual level—with fathers and mothers—but we also need to act at the level of public policy and services; otherwise, we risk finding ourselves in the same situation 20 or 25 years from now.”
Another question asked highlights just how far we still have to go. Three-quarters (76 per cent) of respondents said they somewhat agreed (50 per cent) or strongly agreed (26 per cent) with the following statement: “In Quebec society, people are more likely to doubt fathers’ ability to care for children than mothers’.”
“The fact that we doubt fathers’ competence more than mothers’ is part of the problem, since the societal image we project to fathers is: deep down, you’re not really competent. The mother is more competent than you, and many men internalize that. There are fathers who don’t always feel very competent, and if society reinforces that, it becomes a form of confirmation of their lack of competence,” notes Villeneuve.
The survey is not only intended to paint a general picture of co-parenting, but also to gauge parents’ support for measures advocated by the RVP and several other groups.
The measure that received the most support—from 86 per cent of respondents—is granting perinatal bereavement leave to the father or co-parent. Perinatal bereavement is defined as the death of a child during pregnancy, at birth, or within the year following birth. The leave and benefits granted to the mother vary by case, but fathers are not entitled to anything.
“This is the measure that has garnered the most consensus among the proposals we’ve put forward. 86 per cent of parents say that, in the event of a perinatal loss, fathers should also be granted leave. When the mother loses her child, she grieves alone; she’s completely overwhelmed, all alone at home because her partner has gone back to work. And the father is also grieving, but he isn’t grieving alongside his partner. He goes back to work. What the studies tell us is that fathers experience their perinatal grief with a delay. They experience it six months or a year later. And when the mother may be feeling better, the father will break down because he didn’t process his grief at that time.”
Another measure being called for is an extension of paternity leave. Even though he acknowledges that Quebec has one of the best paternity leave systems, “we have five weeks, but we’ve had the same five weeks for 20 years.”
The Coalition also aims to raise awareness among institutions about the existence of two parents. “In the day-to-day operations of social services, schools, daycare centers, and health and social service agencies, it’s often as if there is a primary parent—the mother—and a secondary parent—the father. Sometimes, there’s a tendency to share important information with the mother and just make small talk with the father. We need to make them aware that both parents are important. Especially since, in Quebec, there’s also an increasing number of shared custody arrangements, and it’s important that both parents have the information—but those reflexes aren’t always there.”
In cases of separation, the RVP would like to see more training offered to legal and psychosocial staff to better support parents, as well as an increase in the number of free family mediation hours. “Currently, only five hours are free. Five hours really isn’t very long. If we had eight, if we had ten, that could really help parents,” argues Villeneuve.
Despite the work that still needs to be done, the RVP’s executive director notes, however, that past Canada-wide surveys have clearly shown that Quebec fathers are more involved and that the concept of fatherhood is different in Quebec. “In the rest of Canada, the first thing that came up was provider. And in Quebec, it was really caregiver, guide, companion,” a difference he attributes in particular to paternity leave, social measures, daycare centers, and support from community organizations.
“What’s interesting here is seeing the progress we’ve made. There’s the ground we’ve covered, and then the ground that remains to be covered. There are truly things that have taken hold in our society: fathers must be present, they must be engaged, they must be there. The idea of co-parenting has taken hold. However, when it comes to putting that into practice, there’s still work to be done,” he concludes.
The survey was conducted online among 2,817 Quebec parents living with at least one minor child and who have a co-parent—1,417 mothers and 1,400 fathers—between Jan. 29 and Feb. 12, 2026.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
