working all the angles: men, housework, and sex

I'm so frustrated that I won't make this year's Council on Contemporary Families Conference in Chicago. Here I am, living in the city, researching fathering and other family issues, and a date I set over a year ago falls on exactly the same weekend. I'll be out of town.

What will I miss? The great men-housework-sex debate! It all started a few months ago when CCF published a white paper titled Men's Changing Contribution to Child Care and Housework. For decades now, sociologists have discussed a "stalled revolution" where men are not pulling their weight around the house. Coltrane and Sullivan suggest that a revolution doesn't happen overnight, and in the long term men are doubling (housework) and tripling (childcare) their efforts at home. Sure, women still carry much of the burden -- the second shift is every bit a reality -- but the men aren't always dead-beat partners, either.

But this story is more than about men patting themselves on the back. It's about how to package social science research for the public. Somewhere in the translation of the CCF white paper, the following headline appears in the Associate Press: Men Who Do Housework May Get More Sex.

Now that's some crafty marketing. Nowhere in the original white paper is there a single word on sex-life research. I suppose a study like this could be done, provided this information is covered on the time-use surveys. In lieu of this, the AP reports on a comment by another CCF member, Joshua Coleman. Coleman, author of The Lazy Husband (2005), another study that doesn't mention sex, suggests that men who don't do housework contribute to women's frustrations, something "that's not going to put her in the mood."

Take the converse of this comment, publish the white paper data, and voila! You've got international circulation for a good story. Now for a quick content analysis on the other news headlines*:

The Reason Men Do Housework
If you want more sex, do the dishes
Doing Dull chores could improve your sex life
Men who do housework get more sex from their wives
Men Clean, Women Swoon, Eyes Roll
Coming clean on the battle of the sexes

Note that only the AP article and number three from the top say "may" or "could." The rest factualize the account. It's verified. Men get more sex.

I shouldn't discredit the expert, though. Upon sharing all of this with my own partner, she first laughed but paused and said, "Well, I suppose it's true!" And that wraps up our packaging of the study: If it makes common sense, it's printable.

Debates on truth of the headline aside, the rest of the white paper is now printed in newspapers and blogs worldwide. Three cheers to CCF! I'm so sad I'll miss these guys this year.

*Thank, you Google News Search