By STEVE DOUGHTY

Last updated at 11:01 23 January 2008

A century after the heyday of the

suffragette movement, it seems

women really can have it all.

They can have a job – and do the

cooking, cleaning and laundry too.

While most Britons pay lip service to

21st century notions of sexual equality,

many are actually living by 19th century

values, a survey revealed yesterday.

More than four-fifths of men rejected as

old-fashioned the idea that women should

stay at home because earning money was a

male prerogative.

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But just 23 per cent of

couples said they split domestic chores such

as laundry evenly between them.

And it wasn't the only hypocrisy that

emerged in the study.

Although four out of

five were worried about the effect cars have

on global warming, fewer than half would

actually be prepared to drive less.

A spokesman for NatCen, which carried out the survey, believed the gap between the haves and

have-nots in this country was too large.

But they were not so generous when it

came to measures which would affect their

wallets.

Just a third said they thought the

Government should spend more money on

benefits and welfare.

The study confirmed that attitudes to sex

are becoming steadily more liberal.

Seven out of ten said they thought there

was nothing wrong with sex before marriage

– up from 48 per cent in 1984, when the

survey was first carried out.

But there is still a lot of support for the

institution of marriage – even though the

number of weddings is at a historic low.

Labour has been accused of downgrading

the importance of marriage by treating it as

simply a "lifestyle choice".

But a substantial group of the population –

around three in ten – said that the

traditional family unit was so important

that divorce laws should be tightened.

The research showed that when children

are involved, our attitudes to family set-ups

are less progressive.

Nearly a third believed

married couples made better parents and

only a minority thought a single parent was

as good as two.

Fewer than a third believed

gay couples raised children as well as a

mother and father.

The report's author, Professor Simon

Duncan, said: "The heterosexual married

couple is no longer central as a social norm.

"But views are more traditional when it

comes to bringing up children.

"Children seem to hold a particular position

in people's attitudes to family life. When they

are involved, alternative family arrangements

are seen as less acceptable."