Grant: Fellowship - PA: Gender, Work and Health

Many women worry that they have too little sexual desire, and this affects their relationships and mood. Research has not found any physical differences between women with high and low levels of sexual desire. Since women's desire often decreases in long-term relationships, it is possible that relationship issues cause or maintain low desire. For instance, doing an unfair amount of household work (e.g., chores, childcare) may cause women to resent their spouses, feel more depressed, or remember experiencing less pleasure the last time they had sex, all of which can reduce desire. This study aims to investigate how the division of household work affects sexual desire, mood, and the pleasure women experience during sex. We will need to exclude women who have current depression. In conclusion, we want to understand the effect of couples' division of household work so that we can better focus our treatment of women who have low desire.