Guys, doing a few chores will boost your sex appeal

No matter how hard women work or what they earn in a job outside the home, they still tend to do more housework than men.

A major study in Canada has found that gender does influence who does the chores.

The study followed more than 900 women from high school into adulthood, focusing on those who had life partners when they were aged 25, 32 and 43 from 1992 to 2010.

Lead author Rebecca Horne of the University of Alberta said: "Women consistently perform more housework than men do."

The researchers studied the division of household tasks between intimate partners and how work hours, relative income, marital status and children's duties influenced housework at different life stages.

The results showed that:

• Men are most likely to pitch in when they are in their 20s if they earn less. Women generally do the housework, no matter what they earn;

• In their 30s, men are less likely to do housework if they work long hours and help with raising the children while women do chores despite this; and

• When couples are in their 40s, housework generally falls to women.

Horne said: "When couples are in their 40s, gender again becomes the biggest predictor of who will do what around the house."

Prior research has found that wives are likely to have better relationships and be more sexually attracted to husbands who fairly help with household chores, and they have better sex lives.

The results from the Edmonton Transitions Study gender research were published in the journal Sex Roles this week.

• This article was originally published in The Times.