How to Split Up Household Chores and Avoid Divorce

Does the division of household labor in a marriage indicate whether it is more likely to end in divorce?  A recent Norwegian study suggests that it might.

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The study, titled “Equality in the Home,” found that couples who contributed equally to housework had a 50% higher chance of divorce than households where the wife performed most of the work.  But if a man performs less housework, does this cause a decrease in the likelihood of divorce?  The researchers do not believe so. They believe the results show a correlation between men doing more housework and more divorces, but not that the division of housework causes divorce.  According to the researchers, more modern ideas about gender roles lead to more men performing housework, and the decreasing sanctity of marriage leads to a higher rate of divorce.  They also note that women’s increasing financial independence makes partners less willing to preserve a marriage when either can support him or herself.  Nevertheless, the researchers claimed that misunderstanding of household duties or lack of satisfaction with a spouse’s performance of them could create trouble in a marriage.

Women still account for most household work.  The above study found that women performed most of the household functions in seven of 10 homes.  A study published in June in the journal PLoS ONE found that 56% of female participants and just 9% of male participants reported that they did more than half of the domestic duties in their houses.  Further, 14% of women and 9% of men reported performing all of the housework.  This study also focused on the role of household labor in increasing stress.  Regardless of whether a husband and wife were on roughly equal salary and socioeconomic footings, the wife reported more distress when she did the bulk of the housework.      

But shouldn’t an equal division of labor be more conducive to a happier marriage by enabling each partner to feel he or she has an equal position?  A study from the University of Cambridge found that men who contribute more to housework are happier and their marriages suffer less conflict.  Similarly, a University of Ontario study concluded that married couples who shared both paid and unpaid work more equally reported higher levels of satisfaction than couples who did not share equally. 

Given all of these findings, the Norwegian study probably doesn’t tell us much about successful marriages.  Ultimately, the division of household chores seems to be a relatively minor issue because although studies show it correlates with higher rates of divorce, it also seems to cause or correlate with higher levels of marital satisfaction. It simply doesn’t make sense that whether a husband does 50% of the housework or 10% will dictate a marriage’s success, given more significant concerns like romance, respect, sex, finances, and family obligations.  An unfair division of labor could signal a lack of respect among partners, which could be a more serious issue than the division of work itself.  But unequal division of labor and higher divorce probably just coincide because of changing perspectives about gender roles and marriage.