Women with partners who contribute to chores have a higher sex drive

New research has revealed that inequity in the household chores and mental load could be seriously impacting your sex life.

New research suggests that inequity in the household could be seriously impacting your sex life.

It’s a great argument for fairer division of chores in relationships, as in the long run it could benefit both partners.

While women might be trudging slowly towards more equal rights in the Western World (note: we still have a long way to go on this front), the impact of the mental load still exists and has been widely documented, Body + Soul reports.

You know, the fact that despite also holding down a full time job and looking after the children, many women still feel the responsibility to ensure the sports uniform is clean on the right days and that they purchase something in advance for their mother in law’s birthday?

The 2022 census also showed that women continue to do more unpaid hours of domestic housework than their male counterparts.

But how do these competing priorities and stressors impact on our relationships, and as a result our sexual habits?

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New research suggests that inequity in the household could be seriously impacting your sex life.

Well, it was something researchers hadn’t really gauged until just recently, when researchers from the Swinburne University of Technology set out to understand how relationship inequity impacts sexual desire.

Published in the Journal of Sex Research, the study found that women in equal relationships (including shared housework and mental load) were more satisfied with their coupling and in turn felt more sexual desire.

Interestingly, the state of the relationship had no impact on what researchers called ‘solitary desire’ or a sense of sexuality within the self.

It suggests that low libido in women may often not be an internal sexual problem, but rather a relational one, brought on by a lack of fairness in the relationship.

This lack of fairness could be creating other issues that get in the way of desire, including anxiety, resentment and exhaustion.

Low libido in women may be brought on by a lack of fairness in the relationship.

Relationships with offspring were more likely to suffer, with researchers noting that children often increase the workload for women.

The study proved that relationship length also played a role, but it was not simply that women were becoming bored with their partners sexually. In fact, they suggested it was more likely because overtime relationships can slide into an increasing state of unfairness, as women take over more and more of the day-to-day life management of their partners.

Women may start out with better shared arrangements that become less equal over the passage of time.

So, what can we do about it?

Overtime relationships can slide into an increasing state of unfairness, as women take over more and more of the day-to-day life management of their partners.

The first and most obvious step is for women to take active steps in their relationships to decrease the inequality they face.

It may even be as simple as increasing the number of times a partner is in charge of cooking dinner each week.

Researchers would also hope to undertake further research in this area, such as a trial of a ‘housework and mental load ban’ for women with low sexual desire, to see if there are any changes in their sexual attitude when this dynamic changes.

Let’s just say we don’t think they’ll struggle for sign ups to that particular study …

The was first published on Body + Soul and is reproduced here with permission