The Gendered Division of Housework and Couples' Sexual Relationships: A Reexamination

Carlson, Daniel L.; Miller, Amanda; Sassler, Sharon; Hanson, Sarah

doi:10.1111/jomf.12313

Cited by 49 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Consistent with recent research this study demonstrates that egalitarian arrangements result in higher quality relationships compared to conventional arrangements, suggesting a reversal in the consequences of egalitarianism over time from negative to positive (Carlson et al 2014;Schwartz and Han 2014). Unfortunately, it is not possible to compare how the division of childcare affects couples' relationships today to the way it affected them in the past as there is no comparable data.…”

Section: Limitations and Future Directionssupporting

confidence: 58%

“…Those who report higher parenting satisfaction generally tend to report higher marital satisfaction. Though we are unaware of any research examining the association between parenting satisfaction and sexual intimacy, research shows that satisfaction with the division of routine housework tasks like cooking, cleaning, and laundry is positively associated with sexual intimacy (Carlson et al 2014) Given these findings, we develop the conceptual model displayed in Figure 1. As shown, egalitarian divisions of childcare may have both positive and negative effects on couples' relationships.…”

Section: The Division Of Childcare and Couples' Relationship Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cultural shifts in couples' attitudes about the division of labor have continued to liberalize, suggesting changes in the consequences of egalitarianism (e.g., Carlson et al 2014;Schwartz and Han 2014). Yet, one very important aspect of the division of labor -childrearinghas been relatively ignored.…”

Section: Figure 1 About Herementioning

confidence: 99%

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The Division of Child Care, Sexual Intimacy, and Relationship Quality in Couples

2016

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Increasingly, both mothers and fathers are expected to play an equal role in child rearing.Nonetheless, we know little about how childcare arrangements affect couples' sexual intimacy and relationship quality. Research has focused on the effect of the division of paid labor and housework on couples' relationships -finding that egalitarianism is problematic for sexual intimacy, relationship quality, and relationship stability. These findings, nonetheless, come almost universally from studies utilizing decades old data and which fail to examine the division of childcare. In this study we update this work by utilizing data from the 2006 Marital and Relationship Study (MARS) (N = 974) to examine how the division of childcare affects the relationship quality and sexual intimacy of heterosexual couples in the United States. Results indicate that men's performance of childcare is generally associated with more satisfaction with the division of childcare, more satisfying sexual relationships, and higher quality relationships.Importantly, we find that egalitarian childcare arrangements have positive consequences for both men and women. These findings contribute to a growing body of research that challenges the costs of egalitarianism and indicates instead that egalitarianism is associated with higher quality, more intimate relationships than gender traditional arrangements.

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Section: Limitations and Future Directionssupporting

confidence: 58%

Section: The Division Of Childcare and Couples' Relationship Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Division of Child Care, Sexual Intimacy, and Relationship Quality in Couples

2016

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“…Of all the things that couples state as necessary for a successful marriage, a "good sex life" is second only to fidelity (Pew Research, 2007). Couples who have frequent and satisfying sex report greater overall satisfaction with their relationships (Call et al, 1995;Carlson, Hanson, & Fitzroy, 2016a;Carlson, Miller, Sassler, & Hanson, 2016b;Sprecher & Cate, 2004), which increases relationship stability (Karney & Bradbury, 1995). It is no wonder that a noted decline in sexual frequency in recent years (Twenge, Sherman, & Wells, 2017) has garnered a great deal of attention.…”

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confidence: 99%

Sharing's More Fun for Everyone? Gender Attitudes, Sexual Self‐Efficacy, and Sexual Frequency

Carlson

Soller²

2018

J of Marriage and Family

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Objective The authors tested competing hypotheses and examined the underlying processes linking gender attitudes to sexual activity. Background Some studies suggest gender conventions increase heterosexual couples' sexual frequency by enacting sexual scripts, but others indicate egalitarianism increases sex by enhancing communication. This study addresses the debate surrounding the association of gender egalitarianism and traditionalism with couples' sexual frequency by examining the mechanisms that link gender attitudes to sexual practices. Method The authors examined the association between egalitarian attitudes and sexual self‐efficacy and examined how sexual self‐efficacy shapes gendered patterns of sexual initiation and sexual frequency. Analyses were conducted using an actor‐partner interdependence model with data on 2,018 individuals from 1,009 heterosexual (413 married, 261 cohabiting, and 335 dating) couples in the 2005–2006 National Couples Survey. Results The results indicated women's egalitarian attitudes decreased couples' sexual frequency through decreased male sexual control, but sexual frequency increased with egalitarian attitudes surrounding sexual scripting among women. Moreover, egalitarian attitudes about domestic and paid labor were positively associated with partner communication, which enhanced partners' sexual self‐efficacy and sexual frequency. Conclusion The findings suggest that whereas conventional attitudes increase sex through male empowerment and female disenfranchisement, egalitarian beliefs enhance sexual self‐efficacy and mutual partner decision‐making.

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“…He argues that men who do more housework, and therefore break gender norms, get less sex. But the most recent housework data suggest just the opposite, egalitarian couples actually have more sex (Carlson et al, 2016). In addition, to no one's surprise, he shows religious conservatives are more likely to say that sex should wait for marriage.…”

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confidence: 99%

A review essay on Lisa Wade's American Hookup and Mark Regenerus' Cheap Sex: Is Recreational Sex a Social Problem? Or what’s wrong with kid’s today?

Risman¹

2018

Preprint

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word count 4197Decades have passed since we have liberated normative sex from the confines of heterosexual marriage. But the divorce of sexual activity from romantic relationships among young people is still the topic of much debate. Both books address what's happening with sex and relationships today, and although they identify similar trends, their analyses could not be more different. Wade's book is a must read for anyone interested in today's young adults or residential college campus culture. The Regenerus book is not worth your time unless you are teaching a methodology course and looking for obvious examples of logical fallacies, misrepresentation of correlation as causation, and ideology barely masked as social science. I begin by identifying the commonalities that do exist in both books and then briefly summarize the findings, and evaluate the strength and weakness of each book separately. To conclude I address the elephant in the review, the role of values in this research, and in social science more generally.Both these monographs are "crossover" books, written to add to the research literature and also for a popular audience. So what criterion should I use for a review for an academic audience? In a research monograph, we expect attention paid to methodology, recruitment of subjects, analytic strategy, theoretically guided hypotheses. A book for a popular audience needs to cover such technical topics very lightly and with no jargon. Both Wade and Regenerus walk this tightrope presenting new research findings while writing catchy public sociology. Regenerus fails, Wade succeeds. But to be fair, it is far easier to explain her primarily qualitative data gathering techniques, and the typology she develops from them then it is for Regenerus who has nearly as many interviews and also quantitative analyses from survey data. Both the quantitative analyses and the interview data in the Cheap Sex were sadly lacking even basic methodological details, either in text or in the Appendix. For example, in a 262 page book based on 100 interviews and a quantitative dataset gathered for the project, Regenerus only provides four tables. But worse than that, we find significance levels of .10 with no explanation, one table with a sample of those under 35 and another including respondents up to 60 years of age. The faith needed to accept quantitative findings without the analyses themselves would be easier if this wasn't an author who was previously involved in a highly criticized scheme to publish what has been called "junk" social science (https://familyinequality.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/regnerus-studycontroversy-guide/) apparently designed to help defeat the legalization of same-sex marriage. It is even less reassuring that another reviewer has been denied access to these data to replicate the analysis (Cohen, 2017). Still, to review the book, I must take the findings at face value. No such problem with The American Hook Up. Wade explains the sources of her primarily qualitative data, from student diaries, interviews...

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The Gendered Division of Housework and Couples' Sexual Relationships: A Reexamination

Cited by 49 publications

References 61 publications

The Division of Child Care, Sexual Intimacy, and Relationship Quality in Couples

The Division of Child Care, Sexual Intimacy, and Relationship Quality in Couples

Sharing's More Fun for Everyone? Gender Attitudes, Sexual Self‐Efficacy, and Sexual Frequency

A review essay on Lisa Wade's American Hookup and Mark Regenerus' Cheap Sex: Is Recreational Sex a Social Problem? Or what’s wrong with kid’s today?

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