14 DAY TRIAL // The latest issue of the scientific journal American Sociological Review has witnessed the publication of a new study stating that traditional gender roles and a couple's love life are very much intertwined.
Thus, this study maintains that the male-female couples who abide by the behavioral norms linked to traditional gender roles have a more active love life than couples who behave uncannily from this standpoint.
More precisely, researchers argue that, throughout the course of a year, the couples belonging to the first category become intimate roughly 20% more often than the ones listed under the second category.
As Newswise explains, the so-called breaching of said behavioral standards basically consists in the man's tendency to perform house-related tasks and chores which would typically be performed by women.
Commenting on these findings, researcher Sabino Kornrich, presently working with the Center for Advanced Studies at the Juan March Institute in Madrid, stated as follows:
“Couples in which men participate more in housework typically done by women report becoming intimate less frequently. Similarly, couples in which men participate more in traditionally masculine tasks – such as yard work, paying bills, and auto maintenance – report a more active love life.”
The specialists maintain that this social phenomenon stems from the fact that traditional gender roles directly influence both a man's and a woman's desirability in the eyes of their partner.
Therefore, men who fail to behave as men are likely to strike their partners as less appealing as far as love life goes.
Lastly, the study wished to emphasize the fact that said difference between the love life of these two groups of people must not be linked to the idea that men who assume their traditional gender role tend to be a tad more coercive than others.
“The importance of gender has declined over time, but it continues to exert a strong influence over individual behaviors, including how often people become intimate within marriage,” researcher Sabino Kornrich concluded.
Still, “Men who refuse to help around the house could increase conflict in their marriage and lower their wives’ marital satisfaction,” Sabino Kornrich warned. In other words, moderation is key.