The Gendered Division of Housework and Couples' Sexual Relationships: A Reexamination

Although contemporary couples increasingly express preferences for egalitarian unions, previous research has suggested that sexual intimacy decreases when routine housework is shared. Yet this research was conducted on data that are decades old. To update this work, the authors compared data from th...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of marriage and family 2016-08, Vol.78 (4), p.975-995
Main Authors: Carlson, Daniel L., Miller, Amanda J., Sassler, Sharon, Hanson, Sarah
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior
Couples
Divisions
Educational Attainment
Egalitarianism
Equity
Evidence
Family (Sociological Unit)
Females
gender
Gender equity
Households
Housework
Labor
Literature Reviews
Males
National Surveys
Of General Interest
Sexual behavior
sexual frequency
sexual satisfaction
State Surveys
Studies
Unions
Women
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Although contemporary couples increasingly express preferences for egalitarian unions, previous research has suggested that sexual intimacy decreases when routine housework is shared. Yet this research was conducted on data that are decades old. To update this work, the authors compared data from the 2006 Marital and Relationship Survey (MARS) and Wave 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH2), collected in 1992–1994. The results indicated change in the association between housework arrangements and sexual intimacy across surveys. Although egalitarian arrangements were associated with lower sexual frequency compared to conventional arrangements in the NSFH2, no such difference was found in the MARS. In fact, reported sexual frequency increased across surveys among egalitarian couples only. In addition, how housework was arranged mattered more for sexual satisfaction among MARS couples than NSFH2 couples. These changes appear to result from the increasing role of perceived equity as a mechanism linking the division of housework to sex.
ISSN:0022-2445
1741-3737
DOI:10.1111/jomf.12313