Men who do housework get more sex from their wives

A survey found that "house-husbands" who do laundry, washing up and ironing also spend more time in bed with their female partners as a reward for their work.

The study carried out in America and published yesterday also found that once a "housework-for-sex" trend has been established in the home, relationships also last longer.

The report's author, Scott Coltrane, of California Riverside Univerity, said: "By and large, the more men do around the house, the happier women are.

"When men do more of the housework, women's perceptions of fairness and marital satisfaction rise and the couple experience less marital conflict.

"Therapists say there's a direct correlation between men doing more housework and the frequency of sex, and wives reported greater feelings of sexual interest and affection for husbands who participated in housework."

The report, commissioned by the US Council of Contemporary Families, also praised American couples for their "remarkable progress" in sharing out the housework and childcare.

Mr Coltrane added: "Even if men still lag far behind women in terms of what they do around the house, they are moving in the right direction and the gains are unlikely to be reversed.

"Men are still only doing half as much as women do, but we see the bar inching up and we think the process is irreversible."

Psychologist Joshua Coleman, a senior Council fellow, said sharing household chores "is associated with higher levels of marital satisfaction - and sometimes more sex, too".

He said: "Wives report greater feelings of sexual interest and affection for husbands who participate in housework."

The phenomenon of men chipping in around the home seems to be working around the world.

Co-author Oriel Sullivan, a professor of sociology at Ben Gurion University in Israel, said: "Men everywhere are doing more."

She added: "Even Italian men and Spanish men are doing more, not huge amounts but more than they used to."

The full report on men and women sharing household tasks is to be presented at the Council's annual conference next month in Chicago.