The Talker: Are men who do chores rewarded in the bedroom?

Up until now, the general thinking was that as men help out more, the home is happier, and the couple living in the home has more sex. A new study of married heterosexual couples found it depends on which chores.

The study looked at data from an earlier, broader survey of 4,500 heterosexual married couples in America.

Researchers found that men doing chores sometimes leads to more sex and sometimes leads to less. The difference-maker, they say, is whether the chores are "traditionally male or female" chores.

Cooking, doing the dishes, cleaning, laundry, and shopping were considered "traditionally female" chores, while things like yard work, paying bills, and taking care of the car were considered "traditionally male" chores.

The study found the average couple had sex just above five times a month. But, men who did chores traditionally associated with men had more sex than men who did chores traditionally associated with women.

The difference was big. Men who did all of a home's tasks associated with women--all the cleaning, all the cooking--had sex about 33% less than the guys who did none of the chores associated with women. Even doing a few of the traditionally female chores hurt the sex total.

Meanwhile, men who did traditionally male chores around the house, had their amount of sex go up. They had more sex as their number of so-called "male" chores went up.

The study did not consider childcare in the study.

Critics have pointed out a potential knock on the study: its underlying survey was conducted ten years ago.

Does the study jibe with your experience? What does it mean about gender equality? Tell us what you think.