Cinderella as Domestic Goddess

I enjoyed our class discussion on Cinderella's role as a "domestic goddess." While it is true that women should not be expected to look pretty and sing sweetly while they clean, it is a sad fact of life that women usually still end up carrying most of the domestic chore load. There was a girl in my Women In Lit class last semester that said a statistic showed that housework among married couples is still split 90%-10% with women doing the 90. I tried to find this statistic online but could not find it. It would not surprise me, though. I did want to put this excerpt from an article I found at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070827174300.htm

"The study of more than 17,000 people in 28 countries found that married men report doing less housework than men who are live-in boyfriends.
According to Davis, the key finding of the study is that it suggests the institution of marriage changes the division of labor. Couples with an egalitarian view on gender--seeing men and women as equal--are more likely to divide the household chores equally. However, in married relationships, even if an egalitarian viewpoint is present, men still report doing less housework than their wives."
This does not give women much incentive to get married these days! When I was the age of most of the students in our class, I imagined myself to be very liberated and would never need a man or do so much housework like my mother. But like I said in class, if you live in a house or apartment with a boyfriend or spouse, someone has got to do the work. If you can agree to split the work equally that would be ideal, but I wonder how often that really happens. My husband will do housework and grocery shopping, but it is always interesting to me that in his mind he is "helping me." Even some of the articles I read said that men would "help out with the housework." This suggests that in everyone's mind, the work is still the responsibility of the woman, but the men have gotten better at "helping." I'm not sure if we have come such a long way in this area! I think it boils down to this: you have to be happy with what you are doing whether that is housework, working as CEO of a company, teaching, raising kids, or any other task! Cinderella may have known something good after all...be happy with yourself and have a good attitude, no matter what you're station!