At least according to a new study published in the Journal of Sex Research — and who knew there was a Journal of Sex Research? Did you? I sure didn’t. I thought everyone learned through the Letters to the Editor of Playboy. Maybe I should reconsider my research agenda.
Anyway, according to the researchers, women who wear the pants in the family are 100 times less likely to have sex than women who share decision-making with their husbands.
I haven’t read the original article (my university would probably fire me if they caught me reading it from the university database), but it seems there are major flaws in their research. Not the least of which is I know lots of strong women who wear the pants (or at least assert themselves effectively in household decision.
Who Wears the Pants in the Family
As baby boomers, most of us remember male-centered households. My dad made ALL the decisions including what we ate for dinner, where we lived, what we drove, and where we went to school. We weren’t consulted for much of anything — including deciding on a major in college (except for me; the rebellious child).
In some cultures, women made most decisions or were at least vocal in these decisions. Some households, that’s all there were – women.
Of course, much of this resulted because men were the breadwinners and women, if they worked at all, earned a few dollars to supplement their husband’s income. Growing up, that seemed normal. In fact, one of my professors in college said we were just there to get MRS. degrees — not seriously thinking of pursuing careers.
Over the years, things changed. Now, more than 30% of women earn more than their husbands — nearly double the rate from just a generation ago. And the recession amplified these numbers as mens’ jobs were hit harder with layoffs.
Correlation Between Decision-making and Sex
While it’s easy to jump to the conclusion that sex suffers in a relationship where women wear the pants, I’m not sure that’s an accurate interpretation of the research. Here are some alternate explanations:
- The study involved African women and it’s unclear whether the results would be the same among a US population. I’m not sure why they chose to look at African women (NOT African Americans), but they said the decision-making style is more clear-cut there involving either joint decision-making or female dominant decisions.
- Women may assert their right to say NO more often. Hence they’re having less sex because they WANT less sex.
- Women maybe stepping out more when they make more, according to an article in Bloomberg (and you can certainly ask the question why this conservative business magazine is talking about sex).
Your Turn
What do you think? Maybe the whole thing is just a spurious correlation — meaning that sex and who wears the pants don’t really have any relationship.
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