Scientists are likely not to be interested in thinking about housework. Housework is, however, related to the life of the mind. Scientists wear clean clothes to the lab, eat food procured and prepared by someone, and live in reasonably clean houses. This labor used to be done by stay-at-home wives. Now, housework is often done by wives and partners who are also full-time professionals--and the women the authors discuss in this study are scientists at thirteen of the top research universities in the United States. Findings from their study, based on data collected in 2006-2007, show that despite women's considerable gains in science in recent decades, female scientists do nearly twice as much housework as their male counterparts. Partnered women scientists at places like Stanford University do 54 percent of the cooking, cleaning, and laundry in their households; partnered men scientists do just 28 percent. This translates to more than ten hours a week for women--in addition to the nearly sixty hours a week they are already working as scientists--and to just five hours for men. These findings have important policy implications. Over the past three decades, governments, universities, and industries have dedicated often robust resources to efforts to increase the number of women scientists--and yet progress in attracting more women to science has stalled. In this study, the authors zero in on the obligation of household labor. They analyze the division of household labor in scientists' homes and their strategies to lighten the household load in order to maintain highly productive careers. They argue that work done in the home is very much an academic issue--not peripheral in any way to scientists' professional lives. Understanding how housework relates to women's careers is one new piece in the puzzle of how to attract more women to science. The authors' policy recommendation provides a new solution to one key aspect of balancing life and work. They propose that employers provide benefits to support housework. Many universities already offer retirement, health-care, and child-care supplements; some even support housing and tuition benefits. The authors recommend that institutions provide a package of flexible benefits that employees can customize to support aspects of their private lives in ways that save time and enhance professional productivity. Institutions need to think of housework benefits as part of the structural cost of doing business. With lab costs running into the millions of dollars, supporting the human resource involved--scientists' ability to be more productive--takes full advantage of investments in space and equipment. (Contains 4 figures and 1 note.)