Doing Housework May Not Help Husbands In The Bedroom

As gender roles have changed and been rewritten over the last several decades, women have taken on more traditionally masculine roles and men have taken on some female roles in the household. It's a very egalitarian change; however, a new study says that men who engage in female housework may be getting laid less than male counterparts who aren’t so into roles like cooking, cleaning, or shopping in heterosexual relationships.

The American Sociological Review published the study "Egalitarianism, Housework, and Sexual Frequency in Marriage” this month. The study measured the share of household labor as well as the number of times the couples were engaging in sex to determine whether or not the tasks men and women were engaging in were in any way related to sexual frequency.

The study found that men who spent their household working hours engaging in traditionally female work were having less sex than men who engaged in household tasks such as paying bills or yard work. According to the study's lead author Sabino Kornrich, the results were surprising, and suggest underlying gender roles are still a bigger factor in relationships than many people may realize.

Additionally, the study ruled out sexual coercion as a factor in traditionalist couples having more sex. On top of this, other factors, including religion and happiness, did not reflect the relationship between sex and assigned tasks. While it's possible that the less traditional couples are trading sex for fulfillment in other areas of their lives and may not even be aware of the potential effects of breaking gender roles, the study is still an interesting look into how far gender roles in the household have changed and how our underlying genetic makeup may still be questioning the changes.