If you thought failing to empty the dishwasher and fold the laundry was not a crime, think again.

At least if you happen to be a married woman residing in Italy.

A 42-year-old housewife is awaiting trial for charges of “mistreatment within the family” and if found guilty could face up to six years in prison. Her felony? Failing to prepare meals and keeping a messy house.

After the woman’s husband made a formal complaint to local police about his spouse’s slovenly execution of her domestic duties, the matter was referred to legal authorities under article 572 of the Italian penal code which can find against “whoever mistreats a person in their family or a person entrusted to them for reasons of education, care or custody”.

With the matter due to come before the courts in October, Italian commentators have mocked the archaic charges, with an editorial in newspaper Il Tempo observing: “It’s a case that seems to have come from the 1950s and not from a country where equality between the sexes should be a given.”

But while less-than-officious attention to housework is rarely a jailing offence in other OECD nations, the disproportionate burden of domestic chores shouldered by women is a problem that exists well beyond Italy.

Studies in the US, UK and Australia consistently find it is the female half of the household left to carry out the bulk of the cooking and cleaning, irrespective of the hours spent in paid work outside of the home.

Two years ago the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey found when men are the primary breadwinners, they complete an average 14.5 hours of housework a week compared to 27.6 hours of toiling on the part of their female partner.

But even in households where women bring home the bacon, they still carry out an average 21.5 hours of domestic chores, while their kept husbands clock up a meagre 17.5 hours a week.

Some have even suggested this energy sapping “second shift” on the home front might be a factor in why women are still under-represented in senior roles in the workplace.

“In four out of 10 households with children [in America], women are the sole or primary breadwinner. Amazingly, though, they still face two glass ceilings, one at work and another one at home,” Bloomberg Businessweek’s Sheelah Kolhatkar reported at the end of the last financial year. “Until that changes, the number of women advancing to high-level positions isn’t likely to go anywhere.”