Less sex by help in the household

US study on gender roles: Helping men in the household, the spouses have less sex

31.01.2013

Should a new study confirm antiquated role models? This result could be obtained by reading the résumé of researchers at the Juan March Institute in Madrid. According to this, married men who actively take on household tasks are said to have less sexual intercourse than men who think that cleaning their kitchens and bathrooms is a matter for women. However, it is not decisive whether men also work in the household, but also whether both are equally employed.

„If housework is shared equally between married couples, the sexual activity is reduced“, write the psychological scientists in the US journal "American Sociological Review". Thus, the psychologists disagree with the usual assumptions that the commitment of men in the household is rewarded with an accumulation of sex. Leading the way, however „not the commitment as such, but the actual distribution of tasks.“

Study data of 4500 couples evaluated
For the study, the scientists around Sabino Kornrich from the Juan March Institute in Madrid evaluated questionnaires from around 4,500 heterosexually oriented and married couples from the USA. The bows were abandoned as part of another research work on married couples in the 1992 and 1994. Although the data appears somewhat older, but the study in this size is the „latest“.

As a result, the spouses spent around 34 hours a week doing household chores, such as cleaning, cooking or shopping. Another 17 hours will be for „typical male associated tasks such as gardening, repairs or car care are spent“. One-fifth of the men surveyed helped with cleaning or cooking and about 50 percent of the women also took over „male-dominated activities“. All couples claimed to have sexual intercourse with each other about five times a month.

If men were less at home, couples had more sex
The researchers were able to discover some abnormalities on closer evaluation. Couples where women are all „traditionally female household activities“ Running alone, on average about 60 percent more often had sex than couples, in which the men completely keep the household in good shape.

Afterwards, the scientists examined personality traits such as dominant behavior of the men within the partnership. However, according to their own statements, the researchers were able to quickly rule out this aspect. Also a „impose on“ The researchers were able to exclude sexual intercourse. The survey showed that women's sexual satisfaction did not decrease with frequency of sexual intercourse. Also, an increase in household help by the men had no influence on the frequency of practiced sexuality.

In the next step, the psychologists suspected that employment could play a role. Here they compared the frequency of the sexual intercourse with the question of whether both were working. „Neither the income of the woman nor the professional life had any influence“, so the study director. „We were also able to exclude satisfaction with marriage, religion or gender ideologies“.

Attraction as a reverberation of old role models
As an explanation, the researchers now suspect that experiencing the partner in gender-typical roles could increase the sexual desire. References to this can be found in previous studies. „But it is also possible that women who alone do the household, have a more traditional role understanding and therefore consider it a duty to have sex with the man regularly“, the scientists write in their report. But it is also possible that classical role models minimize marital conflicts and therefore an accumulation of sex has to be observed. A final explanation can not be made with absolute certainty.

Men should still not start to withdraw from the household tasks, warns Kornrich. "Men who refuse to help in the household could induce marital conflicts and reduce their wife's satisfaction with marriage." It would be better, however, to settle all tasks arising in accordance with their own role understanding in consultation. "The meaning of sex has diminished over time," explains the expert. Nevertheless, this still has a reverberating effect. (Sb)

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