Proven by Science: Not Helping with Washing the Dishes is Bad For Your Relationship

It's now proven by science: dishwashing is bad for your marital relationship ... or more accurately, not helping your spouse with dishwashing will get you in trouble.

A study by Daniel Carlson and colleagues at the University of Utah, found that amongst a variety of common household tasks (like shopping, laundry, and housecleaning), dishwashing is the most unpopular chore and the one that's most likely to cause marital strife if left unshared:

Women who wash the vast majority of the dishes themselves report more relationship conflict, less relationship satisfaction, and even worse sex, than women with partners who help. Women are happier about sharing dishwashing duties than they are about sharing any other household task. ...

The most unpopular household tasks, Carlson told [Caroline Kitchener of The Atlantic], also tend to be the ones most often associated with women. Traditionally, women have shouldered full responsibility for chores that involve cleaning up after someone else: doing the laundry, cleaning the toilet, washing dishes. Men, on the other hand, are often associated with mowing the lawn, taking out the trash, washing the car—tasks that don’t require getting up close and personal with somebody else’s daily grime. Today, women who have to shoulder those traditionally female chores alone “see themselves as relegated to the tasks that people don’t find desirable,” Carlson said. That breeds resentment.

Caroline Kitchener of The Atlantic has the story (Photo: Elnur/Shutterstock)