Live-in boyfriends do more housework than husbands according to an international survey conducted in 28 nations. While some men take on more responsibilities, however, women are doing more housework overall.
Shannon Davis, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at George Mason University and co-researcher of the study, stated in an e-mail message that marriage brings out established roles in men and women.
"This traditional context is supportive of sex-typed responsibilities for household tasks (men [are] seen as more responsible for bread-winning and women [are] seen as responsible for the care of the home)," Davis said.
Davis and other scientists used the Family and Changing Gender Roles III Survey to come to their conclusions, using more than 17,000 people worldwide who were all living with a significant other or were married.
Bahira Sherif Trask, associate professor of individual and family studies at the university, stated in an e-mail message that people act differently when they are co-habiting than when they are married.
Trask said she thinks women feel it is their role to do housework.
"Married women do more housework because they feel it is expected of them," Trask said.
"The historical context of marriage makes it harder, but not impossible, for couples to enact their egalitarian beliefs," Davis said.
Trask said she thinks co-habiting couples are still in a dating stage of their relationships.
"Living together is more like a form of dating -- you are still getting to know each other, it is still a trial period, you are putting on a 'good face,' " Trask said.
Sophomore Brittney Sheldon said she thinks boyfriends do more housework to keep good relations with their significant others.
"They're trying to help their relationship progress and improve for their girlfriend," Sheldon said.
Sophomore Liz Patchell agrees with Sheldon.
"I think the boyfriends would do more work to keep girlfriends," Patchell said.
Trask said men's views of gender responsibilities are changing. Research shows men consider the job prospects of their wives now, unlike in the past.
"The new generation of men are being raised and socialized by moms who are in the workplace," she said. "They look at work and provider responsibilities differently."
Davis said even men who think couples should both help out around the house did not always act out their thinking.
"Married men who have egalitarian beliefs, that is, that they believe women and men should share responsibility for work in and out of the home, have a more difficult time translating those beliefs into a more equal division of labor than did similar co-habiting men," Davis said.
Sophomore Joe Fitt said he thinks boyfriends do more housework because they are younger.
"They have more energy," Fitt said.
Davis said the survey was conducted to see if previous research in the United States could be applied internationally.
"We wanted to examine whether the theories sociologists have used to predict the division of household labor in the United States could be applied more broadly to other countries," Davis said.
She said it is important to study gender roles in households because more couples in the United States are living together without being married.
"If we want to understand the ways that marriage is changing, we need to understand how cohabitations work as relationships," Davis said.
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