Reasons Your Husband Won’t Help With Housework

It looks like money can’t buy cleanliness. According to a study from the University of Warwick, rich husbands are less likely to help their partners with housework.
The study interviewed 36 women and 12 married men, all of whom had at least one child younger than 14. The study found men with lower incomes would help with housework, whereas rich men were more likely to hire outside help to keep the home clean.
“It seems men on lower incomes are happily picking up the dusters, filling the dishwasher and generally starting to do their bit,” said Dr. Clare Lyonette from Warwick University in a press release.
Part of the reason men don’t help, according to the study, is because women don’t feel men can complete the housework tasks properly. Daily Mail called this the “myth of male incompetence.”
“Women know their contribution to the household should be fairly reflected in the sharing of housework and are often frustrated by their lack of success in changing the situation — but their frustrations are to some extent mollified by the idea that men are inept at domestic chores,” Lyonette said in a press release.
According to the American Time Use Survey from 2014, women still do the most housework, even as men have increasingly been doing more. The survey found 83 percent of women and 65 percent of men do household activities, like cleaning, lawn care and other management tasks, according to Time magazine.

Lyonette said men will start doing more housework once the stigma changes and both genders accept that both men and women can do housework.
“Men from lower-income families certainly seem to be starting to do their bit around the home. But at the same time, until all men are willing to take on more domestic tasks, so allowing women to take on greater responsibility within the workplace, any hoped-for progress in gender equality is likely to stall,” Lyonette said.