Housework and Sex in Midlife Marriages: An Examination of Three Perspectives on the Association

Studies of the link between housework and sex sometimes reach divergent conclusions—partly resulting from varying perspectives on this relationship. We identify three perspectives found in prior studies of housework and sex—temporal, distributional, and fairness—each reflecting a different view of the processes linking these two domestic realms. To contribute to this literature, we examine housework measures reflecting each perspective. Negative binomial and OLS regression models using data from the National Survey of Midlife in the United States (MIDUS 2, 2004–2006) reveal that housework measures reflecting the fairness and distributional perspectives are significantly associated with sexual satisfaction but not frequency. Lower sexual satisfaction is associated with wives’ greater investment in housework than husbands’ and the view of housework arrangements as unfair to wives. These findings, which held for wives and husbands, suggest that the inequitable, and gendered, housework arrangements of many heterosexual married couples may negatively affect their sex lives. Measures reflecting the temporal perspective are associated with neither sexual satisfaction nor frequency. Our findings are derived from an older sample than those used in most prior studies of this topic, raising the possibility that some processes linking housework and sex change as individuals age and their relationships lengthen.