Here is a study which risks being accused of macho but which nevertheless has the merit of existing. Belgian researchers from the University of Ghent are interested in the psychological impact of wage inequality between men and women and the sharing of domestic tasks. For this, 1,054 Belgian heterosexual couples aged between 18 and 65 were interviewed. The result is enough to annoy the fairer sex, and not just feminists: men find it hard to bear their wives earning a better living than them. Their morale would also be affected by sharing household chores at home. Yet another study suggested that, on the contrary, housework makes men happier.
Strangely, this male tendency to be black and white, raised by our Belgian researchers, does not hold true in the opposite direction, namely when the woman has a lower salary than her companion and struggles more to do the housework. “In two-income households, the fact that the woman works full time can cause more restlessness and poorer mental health in her partner, and all the more so if she receives a higher salary than him”, summarizes Piete Bracke, professor of sociology at Ghent University and author of the study.
Equality of tasks: men still resist
The distribution of tasks, and therefore mentalities, have not really changed, to the surprise of the researchers: “We decided to conduct this study in order to demonstrate that we were on the path to an egalitarian society between the sexes. we are still far from it “, judge Piete Bracke, in the daily newspaper Le Soir. And to add: “Gender equality within couples still meets resistance from men. Consequently, women still cannot take full advantage of a fair distribution within their couple between the exercise of ‘paid professional activity and participation in household chores “.
To the gentlemen who would be tempted to use this study to justify a refusal of the feather duster, the researchers send a message: “It remains for man not to focus on his autonomy and to accept that, in certain cases, he can rely on a woman who is more competent and earns a better living than him.
