How is grocery shopping completed in households with children? Gender gaps and typologies of grocery shopping in four Canadian metropolises

Abstract

Grocery shopping is important household labor that directly impacts diet quality and related downstream health outcomes. Like other household tasks, it is usually divided unequally in opposite-gender households, with women doing more grocery shopping than men. However, common indicators used to identify gender gaps, like activity frequency and duration, are unable to sufficiently depict the full picture of the constraints faced by women during grocery shopping activities. This is especially evident for women in households with children, who often share more care-related labor. To address this gap, this paper examined the gender differences in grocery shopping activities across multiple dimensions, including frequency, duration, grocery store types, travel modes, the presence of companions, timing of shopping, and trip chaining. Drawing upon the Time Use & Food Habits survey conducted in four Canadian metropolitan areas in 2021, the results show that women and men in households with children exhibited different characteristics of grocery shopping across multiple dimensions. Women compared to men not only spent more time shopping, but also were less likely to drive to stores and more likely to shop during working hours and with companions. Gender differences were further compared among different classifications of grocery shopping patterns identified through latent class analysis. Various gender gaps were found across different classifications, with women shopping with others possibly having some of the most complex constraints. Multinominal logistic regression shows that shopping with others was associated with identifying as female, being relatively lower socioeconomic status, having greater housework responsibilities, and living in areas with higher grocery store density. Overall, this study provides evidence of nuanced gender gaps of grocery shopping in multiple dimensions, within different groups of people, and across a range of cities of various sizes.