The equality hypocrites: It's OK for women to work - as long as they do the ironing, say MEN

They can have a job – and do the cooking, cleaning and laundry too.

While most Britons pay lip service to 21st century notions of sexual equality, many are actually living by 19th century values, a survey revealed yesterday.

More than four-fifths of men rejected as old-fashioned the idea that women should stay at home because earning money was a male prerogative.

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But just 23 per cent of couples said they split domestic chores such as laundry evenly between them.

And it wasn't the only hypocrisy that emerged in the study.

Although four out of five were worried about the effect cars have on global warming, fewer than half would actually be prepared to drive less.

A spokesman for NatCen, which carried out the survey, believed the gap between the haves and have-nots in this country was too large.

But they were not so generous when it came to measures which would affect their wallets.

Just a third said they thought the Government should spend more money on benefits and welfare.

The study confirmed that attitudes to sex are becoming steadily more liberal.

Seven out of ten said they thought there was nothing wrong with sex before marriage – up from 48 per cent in 1984, when the survey was first carried out.

But there is still a lot of support for the institution of marriage – even though the number of weddings is at a historic low.

Labour has been accused of downgrading the importance of marriage by treating it as simply a "lifestyle choice".

But a substantial group of the population – around three in ten – said that the traditional family unit was so important that divorce laws should be tightened.

The research showed that when children are involved, our attitudes to family set-ups are less progressive.

Nearly a third believed married couples made better parents and only a minority thought a single parent was as good as two.

Fewer than a third believed gay couples raised children as well as a mother and father.

The report's author, Professor Simon Duncan, said: "The heterosexual married couple is no longer central as a social norm.

"But views are more traditional when it comes to bringing up children.

"Children seem to hold a particular position in people's attitudes to family life. When they are involved, alternative family arrangements are seen as less acceptable."