Couples Who Share Housework Equally Have More Sex, Study Finds

If you want to up the amount of sex in your relationship, splitting the housework equally with your partner may be the key.

A study of different gender couples found that those who divided housework equally had sex 6.8 times per month on average.

In comparison, couples in which one partner did the majority of the household chores had sex five times per month. 

In households where the distribution of chores was unequal, it was the woman who was doing the majority of the housework in almost all cases.

The study, which was recently presented at the Council on Contemporary Families, was based on data from a nation-wide marriage satisfaction study conducted in the US.

"Contemporary couples who adhere to a more egalitarian division of labor are the only couples who have experienced an increase in sexual frequency compared to their counterparts of the past," study author Professor Sharon Sassler commented.

“Other groups – including those where the woman does the bulk of the housework – have experienced declines in sexual frequency. This finding is particularly notable given reports indicating that sexual frequency has generally declined worldwide over the past few decades."

Commenting on the findings, historian Stephanie Coontz said the study is a sign that happy relationships are becoming increasingly centred on equality.

“Love used to be seen as the attraction of opposites, and each partner in a marriage specialised in a unique set of skills, resources, and emotions that, it was believed, the other gender lacked," she said.

“Today, love is based on shared interests, activities, and emotions. Where difference was once the basis of desire, equality is increasingly becoming erotic."

The study, which is due to be published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, isn't the first to suggest household chores could be the key to a happy sex life.

Last year a study from the University of Alberta also found that couples had more sex when men offered to do a more equal share of the housework.

“In any relationship, the amount of housework is going to mean something different based on the couple’s context," study author Dr Matt Johnson said at the time.

"[It's] based on their own expectations for what each partner should be doing, and their comparison levels of what happens with other couples they know."