Helping your wife in domestic chores will not only help you earn her respect, it also holds the key for better action between the sheets and a healthier sex life, says an interesting study.
The findings showed that egalitarian couples -- where the male partner performs 35-65 per cent of the housework -- had sex an average of 6.8 times per month -- which is 0.5 times more per month than conventional couples where men don't share household duties.
"Feelings of fairness and satisfaction with the division of housework are central to couples' relationship satisfaction which is strongly related to sexual intimacy," said Daniel L Carlson, sociologist at Georgia State University in the US.
The results suggest that gender equality doesn't destabilise relationships the way it used to, as the new generation enjoys "an eroticism of fairness" or, in other words, an equitable arrangement leads to a happy sex life, said the paper to be published in the Journal of Marriage and Family.
"Relationship quality and stability are generally highest when couples are happy with their divisions of labour and find them equitable and fair," Carlson added.
Conversely, inequality can have harmful impact on a couples' sex lives as more couples today expect that equality is something that must be practiced, not just preached.
The study analysed the sex lives of three types of couples: conventional -- where the woman does 65 per cent or more of the housework; counter-conventional -- where the man performs 65 per cent or more of the housework; and egalitarian.
