What women want

That's part of the title of a new study into gender roles, housework, blah, blah, blah in Northern Ireland.

I don't think it's anyone's business how a couple chooses to divide the labor in the house. I consider these kind of studies an attempt at dictating to people how to live with one another. I reject their right to do so.

I also reject the extent to which this is passed off as science. There are some basic questions that I have never seen asked. I have my own speculation as to what the answers might be.

Try these:

1. Who decides when the carpet needs to be vacuumed?
2. Who decides when the children need a bath?
3. Who decides when clothes must be washed?
4. Etc.

I'll begin to take some of this stuff seriously when they've at least addressed those type of questions. It often seems to me that these studies are designed by women who have strong views that men are not doing their share of the housework. But, if women want men to do "equal amounts of housework", then they're also going to have to agree to share the decision-making process.

And, there are a lot of women I know that would much rather clean than wait for the man to accept that something is filthy.

{More details here, if you want them.}