Newsflash: Dividing Housework Equally Won't Hurt Your Sex Life

Society still has quite a few strides to make before we hit gender equality—both in the office and at home. But according recent research released by the Council of Contemporary Families, we're closer to gender equality in our private lives than we are in our work ones. The council's newest report includes a paper by Sharon Sassler of Cornell University that revealed that despite popular claims otherwise, dividing housework equally between male and female spouses has no impact on a couple's sex life. This research pretty much debunks any that idea there's a real connection between housework and sex. In fact, research that supported the idea that housework did have an impact on married couple's sex lives is seriously outdated, Sassler says: From many couples that married in the 1960s and 1970s.

However, for the more modern couples who are splitting the cleaning, the fixing, and the laundry, they're in the minority. The number of respondents who reported equal numbers when it comes to chores around the house is still low—just three out of ten couples reported equal work done by both spouses. For 63 percent of couples, women still do two-thirds of the family's household chores. Maybe this "revelation" that it won't hurt things going on in the bedroom will give more men cause to pick up a Swiffer every once in a while.