A study by Ined, a demographic research institute, published on Wednesday, September 30, found that domestic tasks are more equally divided in same-sex couples than in heterosexual couples. The survey, conducted in 2024, included 7,575 couples living in the same household, comprising 276 female couples and 373 male couples. Respondents were asked about eight specific domestic tasks: preparation of daily meals, dishwashing, vacuuming or sweeping, laundry maintenance, grocery shopping, home repairs, social life organization, and bill management. The study found that tasks are unevenly distributed within heterosexual couples, with some tasks being particularly gendered. In different-sex couples, laundry maintenance is mostly done by women, while home repairs are mostly done by men. This is not the case in same-sex couples. According to Ined, female couples are "twice as less likely to report that these tasks are entirely taken care of by one of the partners (less than 20%, compared to 40%)" in different-sex couples. Female couples appear to be the most egalitarian in the distribution of domestic tasks, with all the tasks studied being more shared and less often delegated to a third party, such as a housekeeper. 43.3% of female couples report an equal share of vacuuming or sweeping, compared to 33.7% of different-sex couples. Male couples, on the other hand, are between the two, or even approach the distributions of heterosexual couples. They show a difference in vacuuming, a task that 6% of male couples delegate to a third party, compared to 3.9% of heterosexual couples and 1.9% of female couples. Ined explains this difference by socioeconomic factors, stating that "male couples having slightly higher social positions than female couples, and therefore more financial means to outsource domestic work." Meal preparation is shared by 33% of female couples, compared to 30% of male couples and 25% of heterosexual couples. For the most common tasks, performed almost daily (groceries, meal preparation, dishwashing, laundry maintenance, vacuuming or sweeping), Ined developed a "synthetic indicator of domestic work distribution," which ranges from 0 to 1. The closer this indicator is to 1, the more domestic work is shared. A couple can be egalitarian, according to this measure, either because they share each task equally, or because they "specialize" in different tasks, one taking full charge of cooking and dishwashing, the other housework and laundry maintenance, for example. This indicator allowed Ined to compare the distribution of domestic tasks in several forms of unions and couples. It shows that the sharing is more egalitarian in same-sex couples. The distribution of tasks in heterosexual couples is more unequal in married couples than in cohabiting or PACS couples. However, in same-sex couples, the gaps according to the union status are not significant. This phenomenon may be related to the longevity of couples, since cohabiting couples are often more recent than married couples. Ined shows that in heterosexual couples, "the older the union, the more unequal the distribution of tasks between partners." "On the other hand, nothing similar is observed in same-sex couples. For women, for example, this gap between recent and older couples is very slight. For men, this phenomenon is even reversed, since the distribution of domestic tasks tends to be more egalitarian within couples with more than ten years of duration," adds the institute. The study also found that less reluctant same-sex couples are to "gendered" tasks. While sociodemographic characteristics can play a role, as seen with male couples who have the means to hire a housekeeper, they do not account for everything. "Even with equivalent sociodemographic characteristics, female couples and, to a lesser extent, male couples share domestic work more evenly than those of different sexes," the study states. It explains this mainly by the "injunction addressed to women to take charge of domestic work" which "remains frequent" in heterosexual couples. While same-sex couples may "have more egalitarian values due to their sexual orientation and their experiences, and less reluctance to perform 'gendered' tasks, that is, socially associated with people of a different sex than their own in society."