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Husbands who do a lot of cooking, cleaning, laundry and other traditionally female forms of housework may do their marriages some good -- but, contrary to popular belief, they are not rewarded with more sex, a new study finds.
Instead, it's the guys who do the most lawn work, car repair, driving and bill-paying - traditional men's jobs - who have the most sex in marriage, the study suggests. The same is true for women who do the most traditional female housework, according to the study published in the February issue of American Sociological Review.
For better or worse, the authors say, heterosexual married couples may still be reading from traditional "sexual scripts" when it comes to both housework and sex.
In other words, the study concludes: "Men or women may, in essence, be turned on (however indirectly) when partners in a marriage do more gender-traditional work."
The study comes with one major caveat: It is based on data collected two decades ago. While the researchers say little has likely changed since then, some other experts disagree.
Couples in which women did all of the traditional female chores had sex 1.6 times more each month than couples in which men did all of those jobs. The more cooking and cleaning a husband did, the less sex the couple had; women's cooking and cleaning was linked with more sex. Couples in which men did more traditional male chores also had more sex; it did not seem to matter if women did more or less of those chores.
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