That’s why the lecture “How do professional couples in corporate America negotiate household and child care duties” caught her eye.

Sowa, who works in the MSU Office of the Vice President for Finance and Operations, said she found many of the issues to relate to her own life.

Japanese journalist Renge Jibu presented the findings at the Union on Friday during a brown-bag presentation sponsored by the Women’s Resource Center.

There she presented her year long study on how professional American couples divide housework.

The amount of support women receive from their husbands has an effect on a woman’s success in the professional field, Jibu said.

In Japan, a woman’s opportunity for a promotion is limited, she said.

Jibu is a former member of the Fulbright Scholar Program at the Center for the Education of Women at the University of Michigan.

The division of housework became relevant to her after she worked at a Japanese business magazine, working with more than 1,000 business people regarding corporate issues, she said.

With Japanese businesses now promoting gender diversity, a declining population and labor shortage, Jibu said the U.S.‘s division of housework should serve as a model for Japan.

“Working mothers see children as a challenge (in Japan),” she said.

“The issue (in the U.S.) is working with the husband.”

For her study, Jibu interviewed 14 professional American couples and four single mothers about how they divide housework within their homes, and how they perceive the importance of their spouses’ careers.

Most of the American men she interviewed said they valued their spouses’ careers and felt responsible for doing an equal amount of housework, Jibu said.

But the women – who said they were satisfied with their husbands’ attitudes – said their husbands did not do an equal amount of housework, despite their intentions, she said.

“I agree that sharing housework is a very important attitude to have,” she said.

“Couples want to divide the duties, but you find in relationships that when it actually comes time to do it – it falls short.”

Jodi Roberto Hancock, educational program director for the Women’s Resource Center, said the lecture was a great way to encourage cross-cultural dialogue about finding a work-life balance.

“Women are often trying to balance all of it and trying to be superwoman,” she said.

“They often neglect things because they’re trying to do everything.”