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Loading...Women Should Do All the Housework to Avoid Divorce, Study Suggests
A recent Norwegian study found that the divorce rates for couples who share housework are fifty percent higher than for couples in which the wife assumes the sole responsibility for household chores — and implicitly suggests that couples who share housework value marriage less, or that women nagging their partners about helping out around the house may lead to divorce. So much for equality between the sexes.
“The more a man does in the home, the higher the divorce rate,” said Thomas Hansen, co-author of the study (news.com). The researchers did not find a cause-and-effect relationship between the man’s duties at home, but rather chalk the higher divorce rate up to modern attitudes. “Modern couples are just that, both in the way they divide up the chores and in their perception of marriage.”
Maybe couples who share housework just don’t find marriage to be as sacred as more “traditional” couples do. So if you share housework, you aren’t as committed to your marriage?
A step backwards
The way this study has been presented is a huge step back in the quest for gender equality. Hansen seems to suggest that it is beneficial for women to do the majority of housework, to avoid nagging their partners and causing stress in the relationship. “There could be less quarrels,” he said, “since you can easily get into squabbles if both have the same roles and one has the feeling that the other is not pulling his or her own weight.”
Maybe so, but Hansen seems to suggest that women should just bear down and take care of all the housework. Why not encourage men to take over the household duties?
In June 2012, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that all women (even those with full time jobs) spend more time on household duties than men, about 2.6 hours per day compared to 2.1 hours. Women still do the vast majority of daily cooking and cleaning, as well as childcare, while men spend more time on yard work and home maintenance projects.
Who does what in your home?
Is strict division of labor the answer to a happy marriage? Or is cooperation and the sharing of duties the best way to be fulfilled in a relationship? Tell us about who does which chores in your home. Are you satisfied with your partner’s contribution? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Related Stories:
Husbands to Pay Wives for Doing Chores: Ingenious or Insulting?
Cooking and Cleaning Makes Fathers Happier and Healthier
Being “Supermom” Could Be Bad for Your Health
Read more: chores, gender equality, housework, husband, marriage, spouse, wife, Women's rights
Photo credit: Dana Robinson
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
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279 comments
+ add your ownNorwegians sound like boring traditionals!
In my opinion this Study is wrong! I believe the family that work together and pray together, stay together. When one spouse is lazy around the house the other spouse feels taken advantage of.
Are men so utterly inept in doing the basic chores...?
If this is actually true, it's another good reason to enjoy the single state! I only do housework when I want to and no-one nags me!
Share the housework, it does not lead to divorce...it leads to happy wife! My husbands cooks and does the dishes. He also does a lot of the grocery shopping and feeds all the outside animals,takes the trash out and washes some of the clothes.
Even in progressive societies there are always those crawling out from under their rocks and trying to push women backwards in time. Did the researcher get into a time machine and visit the wrong century? Try going back a few hundred years and stay there.
Okay, what is with the witch craft in a few of the comments in this article? Trying perhaps to get the other partner to cast a spell to get out of your fair share of the housework? Spamming is still spamming no matter how much pixie dust you throw to cover up the manure. Try another century as well. Legitimate witches don't need to spam, they use moonlight.
The (Norvegian?) boys strike back. Refusing to do the homework, will they all end up in shelters for the homeless?
I think there is no harm if the man helps in the house. As long as making him do it doesn't turn to a house-war. There are a lot of ways to divide the house work in order to keep both partners happy with their roles. Of course, the duties are shifting all the time, depending on the circumstances and the best thing is to communicate and spread the duties on a daily bases, so in this way no one feels frustrated. I find the article a bit funny.
Well I say: You should divorce to avoid all the housework!
I was married for 20 yrs and while my husband was alive we shared chores. There were times I did more and times he did more. If your so worried about who does more household stuff then your not putting your priorities right. We did what needed to be done so we could spend quality time together.
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