Three Roads Blog

Are you a woman who feels slightly guilty for not wanting to spend more time with your parents? Apparently, it’s normal for women to not want to spend time with mom and dad. At least, that’s what new study out of Princeton says. According to the study, which recorded women’s feelings while doing certain activities, “women find time with their mom and dad to be slightly less pleasant than doing laundry.”

The reason: women’s time with parents resembles work, whereas men’s time with family resembles fun, like sitting on the couch and watching football.

According to a Times article, the study fits into to a larger pattern in which the gap between men’s and women’s happiness is growing.

This is probably a study that social conservatives will cling to. “See, looky what feminism did—it made women miserable. They ought to go back to the kitchen where they belong, where they’re happiest.”

But the real story is that women never left the home—even when they entered the workforce. The duties of homemaker have remained in tact. At the same time, since the 1960s, men have cut back even further on activities they don’t enjoy. So if women are less happy now, it’s because they’re juggling careers and the housework, while their lazy husbands chill in the family room and watch the game.