The man who comes home from the office, pops open a beer and plops in front of the television set while his wife scurries about making dinner and cleaning up after the children could face divorce under a proposal being considered by Austrian lawmakers.
Under the partnership principle of the country’s marriage law, housework and other responsibilities are supposed to be shared if the woman also works outside the home.
But often that doesn’t occur, said Anna Sporrer, legal consultant for the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.
Instead, men are more likely to sit around with their feet propped up while their wives do the household chores.
If the woman gets fed up and says she’ll no longer care for her husband, the man currently has grounds to file for divorce and the woman has no recourse, Sporrer said.
To combat this, the women’s ministry has introduced a proposal to require that the housework be split equitably. Failure to do so could be grounds for divorce.
“We want to do something like consciousness-raising,” Sporrer said, acknowledging that the proposal is likely to face modifications as it makes its way through committees.
