I‘D TAKEN on the task of mowing the grass, something which is almost exclusively the domain of my husband.

He had argued against my involvement, but didn’t feel well enough to do it himself.

Having stepped into the breach, I was determined to create a perfect, green-striped masterpiece worthy of Alan Titchmarsh.

It didn’t turn out quite like that, however, as I quickly discovered that mowing the lawn is harder than it looks. It was exhausting, and the result was akin to a bad hair do.

I’m sure, with practice, I’d improve, but while he’s happy to do it, I’m happy to let him.

Similarly, he seems content to leave the ironing to me.

Despite years of equality, domestic chores remain split according to age-old traditions, with jobs seen as either ‘his’ or ‘hers’.

In millions of homes across Britain women are still expected to do the ironing while men mow the lawn A survey found that 36 per cent of men say the household washing and ironing gets done by their partners.

And 27 per cent leave the housework to their other half while one in four lets their wife or girlfriend do the cooking – unless it’s a barbecue, which remains a man’s domain.

At home my husband does most of the cooking, so we buck that trend, but other than that we still tend to fill defined roles, with laundry and shopping being my department and DIY and lawn mowing his.

In my parents’ house – where tasks are very clearly and traditionally defined with my mum cooking and cleaning – my dad always stacks the dishwasher. He has a set loading technique and won’t let anyone interfere. If I slip in a plate or cup, he whips it out in a flash. His method is not to be tampered with. ( I don’t know whether he has seen new research from the University of Birmingham that claims to have found the ‘correct’ way to load a dishwasher by tracing the flow of radioactive isotopes around the caked-on food, but if he has I’m sure he will challenge it).

Things have moved on from the age-old tradition of breadwinner and homemaker, but even in the 21st century men and women still distance themselves from tasks that historically have been done by the other.

There is one job in which both my husband and I opt out – sorting out broadband. A ‘job for the boys’ who, like most children, could programme a space probe without prior knowledge.