WASHINGTON (AFP) - - American men have doubled the amount of
housework they do and may be having better sex because of it,
experts have told AFP.
"By and large, the more men do around the house, the happier
women are," sociologist Scott Coltrane of the University of
California, Riverside, a co-author of a report published in
synopsis form on the website of the Council of Contemporary
Families (CCF) said late Thursday.
"When men do more of the housework, women's perceptions of
fairness and marital satisfaction rise and the couple experience
less marital conflict," the report says.
The reward for menfolk who help out around the house could be
more sex.
"We sociologists generally don't go there, but therapists say
there's a direct correlation" between men doing more housework and
the frequency of sex, said Coltrane.
In a comment posted on the CCF website, psychologist Joshua
Coleman agreed that sharing household chores "is associated with
higher levels of marital satisfaction -- and sometimes more sex,
too!"
"Wives report greater feelings of sexual interest and affection
for husbands who participate in housework," Coleman, who is a
senior fellow at the CCF, said.
In addition to doing more boring chores around the home,
American men spend three times more time with their kids today than
they did in 1960, the study said.
The time women spend with their children has doubled, it said,
speculating that both mothers and fathers have set higher parenting
standards for themselves.
But all that time spent parenting could have a negative effect
on a couple's intimate relationship.
"The increase in parenting hours on the part of both husbands
and wives may pose some threats to the couple relationship since
many couples have increased their time with their children by
eliminating or greatly reducing time for romance," Coleman
wrote.
Happily, though, the phenomenon of men chipping in around the
home appears to be global, Coltrane said, citing work by co-author
Oriel Sullivan, a woman, who is a professor of sociology at Ben
Gurion University in Israel.
"Men everywhere are doing more," said Coltrane.
"Even Italian men and Spanish men are doing more ... not huge
amounts but more than they used to," he said.
The report praised American couples for the "remarkable
progress" they have made in sharing out the responsibilities of
working and family care.
Even if men still lag far behind women in terms of what they do
around the house, they are moving in the right direction and the
gains are unlikely to be reversed, the report summarized.
"Men are still only doing half as much as women do, but we see
the bar inching up and we think the process is irreversible," said
Coltrane.
The hard-earned gains have been made in spite of the poor social
support system for working families in the United States, the
report said.
"The US guarantees no paid leave for mothers in any segment of
the work force, leaving it in the company of only Lesotho, Liberia,
Papua New Guinea, and Swaziland," the report said, referencing a
study published last month.
The full report on men and women sharing household tasks is to
be presented at the CCF's annual conference next month in
Chicago.