How Household Chores Are Split Between A Couple Can Make or Break A Marriage?

According to Dr. Brian Ogolsky, assistant Professor at the University of Illinois and lead author of the research study “Sex Roles”. This study was conducted on 220 newlywed couples married in the last 24 months. It uncovered how the division of labour of household chores can seriously affect how a marriage can go.

A Reestablishment of Ground Rules in Marriage

When it comes to household chores, it would usually be the husband doing all the garden work and general DIY, and the wife would be doing all the cooking and cleaning. Surely this unspoken agreement wouldn’t have any effect on their marriage?

According to the study “The Role of Couples Descrepanies in Cognitive and Behavioral Egalistarianism in Marital Quality”, newlywed couples who had been married for under two years were found to sustain negative effects on the marriage when the distribution of household labour was uneven, and this directly affected the quality of marriage and thus marital satisfaction. The study was conducted by providing couples with a questionnaire to measure how couples viewed household roles and how they actually divide these roles.

Topics delved into to uncover these findings

• “Discrepancies”: the subjective ideals and account imposed by husbands and wives on the division of labour in a household.
• “Cognitive Egalitarianism”: Beliefs about gender roles.
• “Behavioural Egalitarianism”: The perceptions of the division of household tasks and management.
• “Marriage Quality”: The subjective evaluation of a married couple’s relationship on a number of dimensions and evaluations.

After analysing the results of the study it was found that husbands saw themselves in an equal role and their wives felt as if the roles were more in the favour of their husbands. Interestingly enough, women saw a divide between male and female orientated chores while the men were indifferent to this.

For husbands, the sharing of household chores is not directly linked to satisfaction while women are rather affected by the chores that are overseen by them.

So for all the newlywed couples out there, it is vitally important to plan your household chores and make sure that you and your partner are both happy. If you ever come to a point where one of you are unhappy then be sure to talk about it and find a common ground again. After all, communication is the key to overcoming anything.

This post was sponsored by DishwashingExpert .

The Dishwashing Expert , read about the ins-and-outs of dishwashing, and at least have peace of mind knowing that whoever is responsible for this particular chore has an assistant standing by to offer a helping hand when you need it.