Researchers from the Swinburne University of Technology found that women feel more desirable in relationships where household chores are shared equally. published research Journal of Sex Studies.
Even if a woman has a job, she often has more household and childcare responsibilities than her male partners. The problem of the additional burden on women has been exacerbated by the lockdown of families during the pandemic. The study asked 299 Australian women aged 18 to 39 about libido and relationships. These questions assessed contributions to household chores, the amount of free time they and their spouses had, mental stress (for example, who organizes vacations for a couple), and financial decision making.
Modern sexology will divide the libido of women into two components: binary – this is a sexual desire that one person experiences for another, and at the same time it is individual, regardless of his feelings for a partner. Dual desire is intertwined with relationship dynamics, while lone desire is more stable and self-relational.
The researchers compared three groups in which women rated their contributions as equal to, less than, or more than men. Women who rated their relationships as equal reported more relationship satisfaction and higher couple desire than the other two groups. In addition, the duration of the relationship and the presence of children also contribute to women’s libido. The authors attribute this not to getting used to a partner, but largely to the increased burden of women’s housework: sometimes the longer the relationship lasts, the more unequal the distribution of responsibilities.
The findings were also true for same-sex couples, but the association between equality and libido was still stronger for heterosexual couples.
Equality in relationships did not have a significant effect on women’s individual desire, but only on the couple. Therefore, the researchers believe that their findings show that low libido in women is not an intrinsic sexual problem that can be resolved with meditation or Kegel exercises, but a problem that requires effort for both partners.