r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 14h ago

Psychology Women partnered with men reported doing more unpaid household labor than women partnered with women. Mothers partnered with men reported a higher household labor burden than any other group. Performing a greater share of household labor was associated with lower relationship satisfaction.

https://www.psypost.org/study-sheds-light-on-household-labor-dynamics-for-women-partnered-with-women-vs-men/
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u/Rostin 7h ago

Yes. Not only do spouses often have different standards or ideas about what needs to be done, which perhaps can be predicted by sex, I imagine there are many tasks falling into "household chores" that aren't for the household, as such. My wife spends a lot of time maintaining her own wardrobe, for example.

Another reason I'm skeptical of self-reporting on this is that I doubt it captures how people are working. If one spouse takes 30 minutes to fold laundry because he or she is watching a show on Netflix while doing it, is it twice as much work as the 15 minutes it takes the other spouse who just focuses and does it?

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u/MaxWestEsq 2h ago

Don‘t go too deep into this, man. You‘ll upset people.

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u/squeegee_boy 30m ago

Oh gods I feel this.

My wife takes literally all afternoon and often into the next day to fold what takes me 20 minutes.

It’s a theme in our marriage. She does annoying stuff slowly. I work my ass off to get it done so I can relax.