Women want husbands who help carry the mental load, not just the laundry

Much has been written about relationship satisfaction for heterosexual women going up when their husbands participate equally in the domestic chores, but a new study suggests that what’s even more important in these relationships is a partner who carries an equal amount of the mental load. Women spend about twice as much time as the average man on cognitive labor like planning trips, arranging childcare, scheduling after-school activities, anticipating issues and generally managing the household. The study found, however, that when men took on a greater share of this work, women reported higher satisfaction with their relationships. Interestingly, it does not seem to be reciprocal. Men reported higher relationship satisfaction when their wives took on more of the mental load.