Male help around the house keeps away threat of divorce

IN A conclusion that defies conventional thinking, research has revealed that couples are less likely to be divorced if husbands help more with housework, shopping and childcare.

The major study of 3,500 British couples after the birth of their first child found the more husbands helped, the lower the incidence of divorce.

Economists have previously argued that rising divorce rates, which began in the early 1960s, are linked with steady increases in the numbers of married women working.

It was claimed that marriages where men take responsibility for paid work and women stay at home ensures marital bliss.

But the new study, from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and published in the latest edition of Feminist Economics, explodes the theory.

Dr Wendy Sigle-Rushton, senior lecturer in social policy at LSE, said: "Economists have spent a good deal of time examining and trying to explain the positive association between female employment and divorce.

"However, in doing so they have paid very little attention to the behaviour of men.

"This research addresses that oversight and suggests fathers' contribution to unpaid work at home stabilises marriage regardless of mothers' employment status."

Dr Sigle-Rushton's research analysed data on married couples who had their first child in 1970, a time when most women with children stayed at home.