CHORES LEAD TO SCORES
Study says couples who share housework have more sex
AS two attorneys living on the Upper West Side, Alexandra Kling and her husband, Jake, barely see each other during the work week. Their solution to their hectic schedules? Divvy up the housework.
Jake, 31, takes their dog, Walden, on his morning walk, runs the dishwasher and takes out the garbage — while Alexandra, 32, takes Walden on his evening walks, makes the bed and cooks dinner.
“He’s the kind of person who views us as a team,” Alexandra tells The Post. “I think that’s attractive. Splitting the chores gives us time to focus on other things, like our love life.”
And while she didn’t disclose how often they are intimate, she says that their sex life is very fulfilling.
Alexandra’s not the only one who finds equality sexy. A report recently published in the Journal of Marriage and Family found that men and women who share domestic labor had 0.5 more sexual encounters per month on average than couples who did not.
“When it comes to relationships, fairness is more important to us than it was before,” Amanda Miller, a sociology professor at the University of Indianapolis and co-author of the report, tells The Post.
Miller and her research group pored over past relationship studies dating from the 1980s up through 2006, and saw that conventional households where the woman did most of the chores reported a decrease in sexual fre- quency over the past 20 years, while egalitarian couples who split the workload saw a gradual increase. Meanwhile, homes where men did most of the housework had the least sex.
Miller’s report refutes a 2014 New York Times magazine article that claimed an equal division of household chores killed a couple’s intimacy. “They were using studies from the 1980s, and our attitudes on fairness and work have changed a lot since then,” Miller continues. “While we can’t prove why yet, we can say that when it comes to work around the house, equal is sexy.”
Emily Ramos, a 29-year-old veterinary technician, says she’s been getting down and dirty more with her husband, Geovany, a 26-yearold factory supervisor, since teaching him how to mow the lawn and clean the bathroom.
“I think it shows that he cares for me and the relationship,” says Emily, who’s based in Reading, Pa. “Sex is such an emotional thing for me, and I was in a previous relationship with a guy who never did housework — and having sex with him was a chore. We barely did it when we were together. Now [my husband and I] have sex at least four times a week.”
Chris Tuthill, 41, agrees, noting that splitting the cleaning has led to one of his best relationships yet, with 48-year-old partner Cindy da Silva.
“I was in relationships where the workload wasn’t equal, and it wasn’t great, to say the least,” Tuthill, a talent manager in Sparta, NJ, tells The Post. “When I got together with Cindy, my love life improved exponentially. I have absolutely no complaints. I only wish I learned how important it is to be equal with your partner sooner.”