Aussie blokes world's worst at housework

It'll be small consolation to anyone still smarting over the loss of the Ashes but the Brits are apparently so lazy that one in six can't be bothered to change the channel on the TV if the remote control is broken. Yep, they'd rather sit there watching Coronation Street till the cows come home rather than get up and walk two metres to change the channel manually. More than half would rather wait for the lift than walk up two flights of stairs at work, 52% of dog owners can't be bothered to walk Fido and almost three quarters of those surveyed had no energy for sex at the end of the day, according to research published in the SMH last week.

And yet, if the results of another study are to be believed, British men still make better hubbies than Aussie blokes. Researchers from Oxford University found that Australians make the worst husbands in the world because they hate helping out with the housework.

The study, which looked at 12 developed countries, found that women are more likely to move in with or marry a guy if they think their partner was likely to pull his weight with household chores and childcare.

Of the 12 nations surveyed, Australia was judged the least egalitarian nation and Aussie men least likely to do housework. Apparently the more egalitarian the nation is, the less social stigma there is attached to men doing what has been traditonally considered "women's work". The top three nations for men sharing the load were Norway, Sweden and yes, Great Britain.

With the chances of a relationship being harmonious and happy increasing when a man takes on a more domestic role, women in more egalitarian nations are apparently between 20-50% more likely to be living with a guy than we are here in Oz. That's a substantial jump but I can definitely understand why a woman might think twice before signing on as unpaid household help for a partner unfamiliar with concept of a vacumn cleaner. I don't mind doing all the housework when it's just me (not that I have a choice) but I will mind shouldering the burden if there's two of us.

If, as the boffins concluded, the problem is the social stigma attached to men doing so-called "women's work", then isn't it about time we addressed that stigma? By making parental leave for new dads the norm in Aussie workplaces rather than the exception, for example. Women also need to stop allowing gender stereotypes to be perpetuated in our future men. It's all very well to say "boys will be boys" but why can't they also be boys who take an interest in cooking, pick up after themselves and know how to put plates in the dishwasher?

One of my favourite coverlines from my Cosmo days (for a story on how Feng Shui can improve your lovelife) was "Move a lamp, get a guy". Thinking along the same lines, perhaps the message we should be giving to our young men is "Use a broom, get a girl"...