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It seems like only yesterday that everyone was talking about how married couples that share housework are less likely to find themselves divorced. Now, though, new research from Norway has suggested that the opposite that may be true: that divorce rates are higher amongst couples were tasks such as housework and childcare are divided equally. The study, conducted by the Norwegian government, concluded that couples were 50 per cent less likely to become divorced when the wife completed the vast majority of the housework. This, of course, contradicts other recent research which concluded that the unequal division of household chores was a common complaint amongst individuals who chose to divorce their spouses. What, then, are we to assume? Does the unequal division of housework lead to divorce or prevent it? Here at Quickie Divorce, we subscribe to the former. Some have attempted to rationalise these findings by claiming that it is younger, professional couples who are more likely to share housework and that such individuals are more likely to have more pragmatic attitudes to marriage and, indeed, divorce. Couples who prescribe to traditional gender roles – such as the breadwinning husband and domestic housewife – are significantly more likely to view divorce in a more negative light than those who do not. And it is this that explains these atypical findings. Couples that share the housework are not more likely to divorce one another because their sharing domestic responsibilities; they are more likely to become divorced because their values are likely to be the very opposite of those espoused by couples who believe that men should have one role and women another. To those who would argue that a husband should go to work whilst a wife stays at home, cleans and rears children, divorce is likely to carry significant stigma – albeit personal rather than societal – and divorce would be unthinkable even if both spouses were deeply unhappy with their marriages. The important conclusion that we can draw from this is that sharing household chores is that sharing domestic duties can, in many instances, promote marital harmony. Some couples may find that the unequal division of housework does the same, however. All couples must consider the kind of arrangements that suits them and that they believe will result in a long and happy marriage. Irrespective of whether a couple do, or do not share housework, they will never be immune to divorce. Click here to find out more about low-cost uncontested divorce solutions from Quickie Divorce.