--- title: Couples Who Share Chores Have More Sex description: A new study debunks the 'difference equals desire' theory canonical: https://time.com/4378502/yes-couples-who-share-chores-have-more-sex/ author: Belinda Luscombe article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-22T17:12:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:02:47.112Z og:title: Yes, Couples Who Share Chores Do Have More Sex og:description: Parity equals passion og:url: https://time.com/4378502/yes-couples-who-share-chores-have-more-sex/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt11b5540c7f601597/698898fbab6d777de46aa2cd/gettyimages-476806379.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5148 og:image:height: 2896 og:image:alt: Woman removing bra in bathtub og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Yes, Couples Who Share Chores Do Have More Sex twitter:description: Parity equals passion twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt11b5540c7f601597/698898fbab6d777de46aa2cd/gettyimages-476806379.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Yes, Couples Who Share Chores Have More Sex > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Twice a week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Belinda Luscombe](https://time.com/author/belinda-luscombe/)  ## Belinda Luscombe Editor at Large Jun 22, 2016 5:12 PM UTC  The benefits of cleaning the bath, according to a new study. The benefits of cleaning the bath, according to a new study. Caiaimage/Paul Bradbury—Getty Images  by [Belinda Luscombe](https://time.com/author/belinda-luscombe/)  ## Belinda Luscombe Editor at Large Jun 22, 2016 5:12 PM UTC In the 16-round-boxing match that is figuring out how to apportion the domestic chores between husband and wife, dividing it up along gender lines is about to take a really painful punch to the face. A study to be published in the _Journal of Marriage and Family_ in August has found that among couples who share their chores more evenly, there is more sexual gratification. In fact, say the researchers, the _only_ couples reporting having more sex than their forebears did are those who are both getting busy with the household duties. (Sexual frequency has declined globally in the past few decades, even before Netflix.) This is significant, because as recently as 2013, there was a widespread belief that when men and women strayed into each other’s domestic territory, they didn’t find each other as desirable. The thinking was that guys who did the washing up and women who changed the oil on the family car were somehow muting their masculinity or femininity and thus sending less robust come-hither sexual signals. The new study, out of Cornell University, says the old data, which prompted [a New York Times magazine cover story](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/magazine/does-a-more-equal-marriage-mean-less-sex.html?%5Fr=0) and such headlines as “Difference Equals Desire” was old and that newer statistics report the opposite effect. “The association between a non-traditional division of labor at home and couples’ sexual satisfaction and frequency has changed dramatically over the past two decades,” writes the study’s lead author Sharon Sassler, a professor of policy analysis and management, in a [briefing paper](https://contemporaryfamilies.org/sex-equalmarriages/) for the Council on Contemporary Families. “By 2006, couples who reported sharing housework fairly equally, with the man doing more than a third and up to 65% of the housework, reported having sex significantly more often than did couples where the woman (or the man) did 65% or more of the housework.” Why do chores change anything? “The evidence shows that when men do a greater share of housework, women’s perceptions of relationship fairness and satisfaction are greater,” writes Sassler. And when couples are more satisfied with their relationships, they tend to get it on more often. The secret ingredient, especially, seems to be [ childcare](http://www.asanet.org/press-center/press-releases/couples-split-childcare-duties-have-higher-quality-relationships-and-sex-lives). Historian Stephanie Coontz notes that this is in keeping with recent scholarship that suggests that marriage is changing from a union in which two opposites worked together to make up for each other’s deficits, into a union based on shared interests, activities and emotions—the ramifications of which are explored [in a recent TIME cover story](http://time.com/magazine/us/4354737/june-13th-2016-vol-187-no-22-u-s/). “Where difference was once the basis of desire,” says Coontz, “equality is increasingly becoming erotic.” It should also be noted that frequency and satisfaction are not always the same thing. “In marriages of the 1950s and 1960s, wives often reported having sex more often than they wanted because they were dependent on their husbands,” notes Coontz. “Now that women feel free to say no, they are more likely to say yes when they feel the relationship is fair.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4378502/yes-couples-who-share-chores-have-more-sex/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4378502/yes-couples-who-share-chores-have-more-sex/"},"headline":"Yes, Couples Who Share Chores Have More Sex","datePublished":"2016-06-22T17:12:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:02:47.112Z","description":"A new study debunks the 'difference equals desire' theory","url":"https://time.com/4378502/yes-couples-who-share-chores-have-more-sex/","keywords":["motto","women","Marriage","Sex","childcare","chores","Men","housework"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt11b5540c7f601597/698898fbab6d777de46aa2cd/gettyimages-476806379.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Belinda Luscombe","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/belinda-luscombe/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt11b5540c7f601597/698898fbab6d777de46aa2cd/gettyimages-476806379.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Woman removing bra in bathtub","caption":"Woman removing bra in bathtub","creditText":"Caiaimage/Paul Bradbury—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4378502/yes-couples-who-share-chores-have-more-sex/","name":"Yes, Couples Who Share Chores Have More Sex"}}]}] ```