The division of household labor: Why change is so slow.

What I Love:

Beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970's married women began to enter the labor force in droves. Today, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 51.4 percent of married couples are dual-earners. Further, 77.3 percent of married mothers with children between the ages of 6 -1 7 were employed. (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.nr0.htm).

What I Hate:

But why have we still not witnessed droves of husbands taking on their fair share of housework and child care, especially the repetitive, must be done this minute chores like feeding children, changing diapers, etc. Sociologists offer several explanations. The first is a classical structural argument, the world of work has not changed except to expect even more from workers. Also, most married men continue to earn more than their wives? why, it is a combination of discrimination, choice (women choose jobs with more flexibility that also pay less - think teacher). More importantly, there are great incentives for women to be employed, money. For husbands, what is the incentive to do housework. I began to think about this. Well how about their wives will be really happy and less tired, will complain less, and the couple will have a common sense of responsibility for their family?

What I Love:

In a new paper, my Professor Scott Yabiku and I explore whether sex might be an incentive. We proposed that if husbands carried more weight in the housework and child care arena, they might be appreciated by their wives, who might now be less tired and more interested in ---sex. What do we find? Not only are husbands who spend more time on housework report more frequent sex, but so are their wives. We find that greater number of hours performed by husbands and wives re associated with more frequent sex!