Name a woman's job

[MajGenl.Meade]

Sounds like my eating plan to lose weight.

[Long Run]

host Grant Denyer

Can't believe he didn't get a job at the Gates Foundation.

[Gob]

A woman's work is never done ... or not by men any way. It would seem that the enlistment of labour on a subsistence basis is now forbidden in Australia, except in one state - the holy state of matrimony.

Network Ten game show Family Feud, which pits two families against each other to name the most popular responses to questions posed to 100 Australians, asked contestants this week to "name something people think is a woman's job". The correct answers included cooking, washing clothes, cleaning, nursing, doing the dishes, hairdressing and domestic duties. When asked by host Grant Denyer to name a man's job, the top responses were builder, plumber, mechanic, carpenter, tradesman.

A new poll by British market research company ComRes has revealed that even though women make up half the workforce, we're still doing the majority of the housework and childcare.

Apparently, giving a room a sweeping glance is the closest most men ever come to housework, besides leaving a roasting pan to soak. It's a body blow to my generation. We thought we were going to have it all, but have clearly just ended up doing it all. Consequently female life expectancy is shrinking and signs of stress, such as heart attacks, high blood pressure and alopecia are on the rise. And is it any wonder females are so frazzled? The Dunkirk evacuation would be easier to organise than a working mum getting her kids up and out of the house on a school day. One morning I was so tired, I toasted my hand with vegemite and placed it on my daughter's plate. Many a time, I've thrown clothes into the washing machine - with kids still in them. And I'm not alone. All the working mums I know are ricocheting from one nervous breakdown to another, leaving a trail of feral, nanny-reared children in their wake, juggling dinner parties and Prozac overdoses and divorce lawyers because their husbands are having affairs with childless women who don't have dishpan hands.

The ComRes survey revealed that women do 11½ hours of housework a week, twice as much as men, who only do six. (Researchers attached a proviso to their findings, saying the division could be even greater, as men tended to overestimate how much housework they did.) Women also tackle the bulk of the most dreaded chores, like cleaning the toilet and ironing. When confronted about these Chore Wars, husbands maintain that they'd like to help more around the house, only they can't "multi-task". This of course, is a biological cop out. Can you imagine any man having any trouble multi-tasking at, say, a menage a trois?

Before marriage, I fantasised about becoming one of those superwomen who could balance a cheque book with one hand and a baby with the other, while whipping up a gourmet feast, even though the larder was bare and all I had in the fridge was some wart medicine, nail polish and half a lemon. But once I'd actually tied the knot and shot out a couple of sprogs, I rapidly realised that if motherhood was advertised in a job's column, it would read – "Must be good at making mince interesting, locating the lost glove and finding the square root of the hypotenuse, (even if you didn't know the damn thing was lost). Hours: constant. Time off: nil. No sick pay, no holiday pay – hell, no pay." Would you take this job? I don't think so. If only we'd read the small print of our marriage licences.

Last year Tony Abbott promised $120 marriage counselling vouchers to curb divorce rates. But the solution to maintaining marital harmony is simple. Men must do their fair share. When I was growing up, my mum and dad divided the domestic chores. Mum did everything inside the house and Dad did everything outside. But most men today don't even own a tool kit. My husband's only attempt at DIY resulted in a very embarrassing call to emergency services after he trapped himself in a flat-pak wardrobe he was assembling. But if blokes are now getting a handyman in to do the DIY, then it's time they realised that it's not the Toilet Fairy who changes the roll on the spindle. The only kind of Iron Man an exhausted mum craves is the one holding a laundry basket.

I used to think that the ultimate proof of female superiority is the fact that women live longer than men. But I've now realised that's just so typically male - leaving all the cleaning up to a woman. But it's in men's interest to keep wives happy. When a womanhas worked all day, then comes home to cook dinner, help with homework, find the lost sports kit, stack the dishwasher, sort the washing, by the time she crawls into bed, the one thing she's fantasising about is sleep. Then she feels the hand.

Men make horror movies called The Blob and The Thing. Women would make The Hand. It would seem that this bloke who hasn't spoken to her all day, or helped around the house, thinks she's in the mood for love. She's in the mood for running him through with a carving knife. Perhaps therein lies the solution to the Chore Wars? Offering sexual rewards for domestic tasks could broker a truce. A sensual incentive would have most husbands vacuuming so thoroughly, skirting boards will be sucked right off the wall. Or perhaps you can simply point out that it's scientifically proven that no woman has ever shot her husband while he was vacuuming. Alternatively you could just trade in your undomesticated old Alpha male for a younger, better beta. A toyboy will adore you, not bore you and do all your chores for you ... a "wife" in other words. How good does that sound!

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/if-your-w ... z3GYC0hQTP

[oldr_n_wsr]

The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.

[rubato]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/20 ... s_sex.html

Guys Who Do Housework Get Less Sex

By Christina Hoff Sommers
160384900 Dude, put the brooms down.

Photo by Pedro Ladeira/AFP/Getty Images

It may be gratifying for women to see their husbands loading the dishwasher or folding laundry, but is it sexy? Yes, according to many media stories. “Men: Want More Sex? Do the Laundry” was headline of a 2009 report from CBS News. According to Naomi Wolf, “research has shown that the most erotic thing a man can do for a woman is the dishes.” Sheryl Sandberg, the author of Lean In, agrees. “Nothing is sexier” she says, than a man who wants to do his share of the housework. “It may be counterintuitive,” writes Sandberg, “but the best way for a man to make a pass at his wife is to do the dishes.” Sandberg urges readers to check out a “fabulous little book” called Porn for Women produced by the Cambridge Women’s Pornography Cooperative. It is full of images of hunky guys vacuuming, dusting, and cleaning the kitty litter.

But now a new study in the American Sociological Review casts doubt on the truth of this happy feminist idyll. Men routinely doing “female” chores appear to have less—not more—sex. According to the authors, Sabino Kornrich (Center for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Madrid), Julie Brines (University of Washington), and Katrina Leupp (University of Washington):

Couples in which men participate more in housework typically done by women report having sex less frequently. Similarly, couples in which men participate more in traditionally masculine tasks—such as yard work, paying bills, and auto maintenance—report higher sexual frequency.

yrs,
rubato

[rubato]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... finds.html

Couples who share the housework are more likely to divorce, study finds
Divorce rates are far higher among “modern” couples who share the housework than in those where the woman does the lion’s share of the chores, a Norwegian study has found.
Couples may share the washing up but the same can not be said for financial decisions, the DWP has found Photo: ALAMY
Henry Samuel

By Henry Samuel, Paris

10:00PM BST 27 Sep 2012

In what appears to be a slap in the face for gender equality, the report found the divorce rate among couples who shared housework equally was around 50 per cent higher than among those where the woman did most of the work.

“What we’ve seen is that sharing equal responsibility for work in the home doesn’t necessarily contribute to contentment,” said Thomas Hansen, co-author of the study entitled “Equality in the Home”.

The lack of correlation between equality at home and quality of life was surprising, the researcher said.

“One would think that break-ups would occur more often in families with less equality at home, but our statistics show the opposite,” he said.

The figures clearly show that “the more a man does in the home, the higher the divorce rate,” he went on.

yrs,
rubato

[oldr_n_wsr]

my wife does the inside chores (cooking, cleaning, etc) and I do the outside chores (weeding, grass cutting, car stuff, etc). She does bills as she has the accounting/business degree. I only do inside stuff like painting, wall papering, electrical. Of course she picks out the wall paper and color for the paint. Matter of fact, we're redoing the kitchen walls right now. I get to rip down the old wallpaper (she picked it out but I got to hang it) and then paint them in the color she picks out. I think she wants wainscoting. Oh joy.

Been working for us for 30+ years.

[MajGenl.Meade]

My wife tells me what to do. Sometimes I do it.

[Big RR]

My wife and I have worked out a system that works for us (and has for nearly 40 years); we share a lot of the work, and do what we do best (I am usually the cook, at least on weekends and for parties; she does much of the marketing; we share the cleaning but also have a housekeeper come in to do the stuff we both don't like to do--like bathrooms; a similar split for outside work), but the key to this working is a two part system--don't be so interested in keeping score as to who does what, and if something bothers you that much, then do it yourself. Yes, it does involve a lot of trust and cooperation to work this way, but it can work; life is way too short (and way, way too complicated) to sweat the small stuff.

[TPFKA@W]

My husband does the outdoor stuff and a fair amount of the indoor stuff. He does his own laundry generally, unless something unusual is going on that takes his time up. I MIGHT do his laundry once every year. He sews on his own buttons etc as I am completely worthless in that area. He usually cleans out the refrigerator. He can and will do dishes, but not as promptly as I like. He will run the vacuum and dust and cleans "his" bathroom. He does about 50% of the cooking.
He is helpful and civilized and I do appreciate him for going against the norm.

[Long Run]

she does much of the marketing;

???

eta: I see it now -- shopping. Interesting use of that word, at least on this side of the continent.