Understanding the stalled gender revolution requires understanding how couples’ domestic arrangements are related to their reports of relationship quality. Research, however, is equivocal on whether egalitarian housework arrangements are optimal for both men’s and women’s relationship quality (e.g., perceived equity and relationship satisfaction). Inconsistent findings may result from the fact that conventional approaches to measuring housework divisions do not account for how couples construct their domestic arrangements. This study reconceptualizes the division of routine housework as a count of tasks one shares equally with their partner, and compares this measure to a conventional measure of male partner’s proportion of overall housework in predicting relationship quality. Regression analyses are conducted for men and women in mixed-sex, married and cohabiting unions from two datasets: the 1992–1994 wave of the U.S. National Survey of Families and Households (N = 10,498) and the 2006 Marital and Relationship Survey (N = 1,065). Results indicate substantial variability in the degree of task sharing in couples. Consistent with social exchange theory, men’s overall proportion of housework is positively associated with women’s relationship quality but negatively associated with men’s relationship quality. Number of equally shared tasks, however, is positively associated with both men’s and women’s relationship quality, supporting an equity perspective. Overall, findings indicate that egalitarian arrangements where partners’ share equally in the completion of housework tasks are the most mutually beneficial arrangement, resulting in the highest levels of relationship quality for both men and women.

了解停滞不前的性别革命需要了解夫妻的家庭安排如何与他们的关系质量报告相关联。然而，关于平等的家务安排是否对男性和女性的关系质量（例如，感知公平和关系满意度）都是最佳的，研究是模棱两可的。不一致的结果可能是由于测量家务分工的传统方法没有考虑夫妻如何构建他们的家庭安排。本研究将日常家务的划分重新概念化为一个人与其伴侣平等分担的任务，并将这一衡量标准与男性伴侣在预测关系质量中占整体家务劳动比例的传统衡量标准进行比较。对混合性别的男性和女性进行回归分析，N  = 10,498) 和 2006 年婚姻和关系调查 ( N  = 1,065)。结果表明，夫妻分担任务的程度存在很大差异。与社会交换理论一致，男性家务劳动的总体比例与女性的关系质量呈正相关，与男性的关系质量呈负相关。然而，平等分担任务的数量与男性和女性的关系质量呈正相关，支持公平的观点。总体而言，研究结果表明，合作伙伴平等分享完成家务任务的平等安排是最互惠互利的安排，从而使男性和女性的关系质量达到最高水平。