A couple kiss as fireworks light the sky during New Year celebrations in Sarajevo January 1, 2012.
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Different couples have their own way of managing their work and lives. While some may prefer sharing the house work equally with each other, others may stick to their gender specific, traditional roles. Recent studies have showed a surprising correlation between sexual satisfaction and the distribution of housework between partners.

Studies in the past stated that conventional couples who performed gender-specific roles had more sex and reportedly, the best sex. But a new study proved the previous trending studies as false; they justified this by throwing light on the time period of the data that was analysed for the study. The study was based on the data between 1987 and 1992, which was decades ago, when the mentality of the people differed.

A recent study gave a fuller view of a couple's sexual relationship level and the manner in which they handled house work. The study, scheduled to be presented in the American Sociological Association annual meeting, analysed data from 2006. They found that couples who shared housework were more sexually satisfied and had more sex. Not just that, they also had the best sex.

Daniel Carlson, a sociology professor at Georgia State University and one of the authors of the new study, said, "The conventional view, based on data that's a quarter century old, is that sexual arousal for heterosexual couples is dependent traditional gender roles, on a man being manly and a woman being feminine." He explained that with changing attitudes and perceptions, they weren't sure if conventional gender behaviour has an impact on the people's sexual moods.

He also added that men who are involved in household work and engage with children and women and who appeared strong and independent, attracted the opposite sex.

The data they collected was a from Marital and Relationship Survey on a representative sample of 600 married couples with children, from average income families. The survey revealed that those who share the work at home had sex 7.74 times a month and claimed that they had the highest level of satisfaction compared to other couples. They also had a very healthy sexual relationship.

Women in egalitarian relationships were much happier as well, as they feel they are in an environment without biases. Sex and housework talk greatly about a relationship's stability.

While these are the dominant familial structures, there are counter conventional relationships as well in which the man does most of the household chores. Carlson and his colleagues found that men in such relationships were the least happy about their sexual lives.

Carlson said, "Couples often find themselves in this arrangement, it's not something they choose, which means they're not always going to be satisfied with the housework arrangement. That dissatisfaction lowers the quality of their sexual intimacy."

The study, however, found only 30 per cent of the couples being in egalitarian relationships compared to 47 per cent of cohabiting couples - who also reported having more sex than married couples.

Carlon said that egalitarian relationships are lower because the thought process was different few years ago, and even now it is hard for couples. "Our institutions and our policies haven't caught up with our attitudes. That's why we're still stalled."