Study Shows Couples Who Share Chores More Likely to Divorce

"The Triumph of Women's Rights" - 1869

This ought to be plain and simple common sense: good fences make good bedfellows.

Just as clear lines of authority and job descriptions are essential for a company to run smoothly, the division of labour is essential for an economy to run smoothly, and a separation of powers is essential for a government to run well, so having clear and distinct spheres of authority, aka “sex roles,” is essential for a marriage.

I mean, obviously: if both are responsible for everything, everything becomes a subject of potential disagreement, irritation, conflict. Neither has any private space or opportunity to be themselves. It also becomes possible for one member of the relationship to completely subjugate the other, if so inclined—or to try to.

"Man as He Expects to Be" - 1869

It’s a perfect plan for breaking up a marriage.

Yet the elimination of traditional sex roles has always been the essential idea behind feminism. And then the divorce rate skyrocketed, and everyone took great pains not to blame it on feminism. At last, fifty years later, some study has, to its reputed surprise, rediscovered what we all knew all along. There is a reason for traditional sex roles.

And it is not the man, note, who is going to divorce because the woman works outside the home or because he has to wash the dishes. In these circumstances, it is far more often the woman who initiates the divorce.

Feminism, on balance, has done more harm to more people than either Fascism or Communism ever did.