# Unscientific generalization: Women are worse at loading the dishwasher **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 13, 2010, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unscientific-generalization-women-are-worse-at-loading-the-dishwasher/543046 "2010-06-13T21:37:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unscientific-generalization-women-are-worse-at-loading-the-dishwasher/543046/21 "2010-06-14T09:35:07Z")
Depends, among other things, on your definitions. One of my brothers loads it faster than I do, but can’t get in as much stuff and never notices that it’s due (it may be due because we’re out of forks, even though there is enough space for dinner’s dishes - or there would be, if we had clean forks to eat dinner with). The other one loads it faster than I do and knows when it’s due, but he loads it with a bass soundtrack. Bum! Bum! Bum! Crash! When they replaced their first dishwasher, his wife would specifically ask salespeople for “a husband-resistant model”. The one they have has all-metal or all-plastic pieces, none that are plastic-on-metal like they were in that first model. Neither brother pre-cleans the dishes as well as I do (they’re likely to leave fishbones or small pieces of food; Spanish dishwashers have no disposal grinder), so whenever they’re in charge of a dishwasher it needs more maintenance than if I’m in charge of it. So if you go for speed, either brother is better than me. But if you want the dishwasher to last longer and the handwashing to last less, I’m better. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unscientific-generalization-women-are-worse-at-loading-the-dishwasher/543046/22 "2010-06-14T19:30:08Z")
I’m objectively better than Mrs G, but she is far superior at leveraging confirmation bias to cast doubt on my record. Me: Whaddya mean, I’m great at loading… Mrs G: There was a fleck of parsley on my plate in the cupboard last week. Parsley! Me: An aberration, nothing more Mrs G: (randomly pulls plate from cupboard) Listen to this! (scritch scritch scritch) Me: Look, you’re not giving me credit for the vast expanses of clean surface area on those… Mrs G: (pulls down a glass) Hello…can you see me through this? Is it foggy in here, it’s so hazy… ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unscientific-generalization-women-are-worse-at-loading-the-dishwasher/543046/23 "2010-06-14T19:38:12Z")
_hangs head in shame_ It took me a full-on year to figure out how to load our current dishwasher properly. To my credit (okay… not), I didn’t have much practice. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unscientific-generalization-women-are-worse-at-loading-the-dishwasher/543046/24 "2010-06-14T23:08:22Z")
I’m female and I chose “women are worse.” That’s only in my small sample size, but yes, the female roommates I’ve had are bad at loading the dishwasher, while my current male roommate (as well as my father) load it correctly. It annoys me just as much as my male roommate when one of the other girls puts a pot the wrong way, or puts sharp knives in pointy side up, or a cup right-side up so it fills with nasty dishwasher water. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unscientific-generalization-women-are-worse-at-loading-the-dishwasher/543046/25 "2010-06-14T23:15:06Z")
My two female roommates are just awful at loading the dishwasher. Cups in the plate part, silverware going every which way, pots and pans that DON’T BELONG IN THE FREAKING DISHWASHER in the dishwasher. Argh. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unscientific-generalization-women-are-worse-at-loading-the-dishwasher/543046/26 "2010-06-14T23:39:38Z")
My lovely g.f. doesn’t think about \*not \*putting something in that would take up 1/3 of the bottom shelf and leaving insufficient room for the many dirty dishes. A large bowl, for example, that needs very little rinsing in the sink, can be dispensed with in about 10 seconds, or it can be placed in the dishwasher leaving no room for everything else. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unscientific-generalization-women-are-worse-at-loading-the-dishwasher/543046/27 "2010-06-14T23:53:07Z")
To bring some science into this - there is [some evidence](http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/psychologists-report-a-gender-72612.aspx) that women are worse at mental rotation than men: > [@](#): > > Men tend to perform better than women at tasks that require rotating an object mentally, studies have indicated. Now, developmental psychologists at Pitzer College and UCLA have discovered that this type of spatial skill is present in infancy and can be found in boys as young as 5 months old. > > While women tend to be stronger verbally than men, many studies have shown that adult men have an advantage in the ability to imagine complex objects visually and to mentally rotate them. ---
**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unscientific-generalization-women-are-worse-at-loading-the-dishwasher/543046/28 "2010-06-15T00:19:28Z")
I know my mom was a pretty mean dishwasher loader…she knew how to organize things in there like no one’s business. I also am good at this. My wife, however, is not. So based on my sample, I’d say…no comment? ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unscientific-generalization-women-are-worse-at-loading-the-dishwasher/543046/29 "2010-06-15T00:44:08Z")
Mrs. Mustard not only cannot properly load a dishwasher, she also has no clue how to place items in the refrigerator. No freakin’ clue whatsoever. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unscientific-generalization-women-are-worse-at-loading-the-dishwasher/543046/30 "2010-06-15T00:48:24Z")
I can’t generalize, but completely anecdotally, my wife does it totally wrong. She’s also got the nerve to say I’m the one doing it wrong, but I can pack in a lot more than she can. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unscientific-generalization-women-are-worse-at-loading-the-dishwasher/543046/31 "2010-06-15T00:59:11Z")
Dunno - my husband and I load the dishwasher exactly the same and the dishes come out clean. I had a former male roommate who made a mess and a former female roommate who made a mess, so I have no real opinion. Generally, I suspect whomever loads the dishwasher the most probably tends to be the best at it. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unscientific-generalization-women-are-worse-at-loading-the-dishwasher/543046/32 "2010-06-15T03:57:41Z")
> [@Lakai](#): > > To bring some science into this - there is [some evidence](http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/psychologists-report-a-gender-72612.aspx) that women are worse at mental rotation than men: This was the kind of thing I thought of; spatial reasoning like that seems to be more common in males than in females. One of the reasons I went into Civil Engineering is because I showed a high aptitude for spatial reasoning (despite the fact that I’m female). It’s kind of at cross purposes with another thing which is that women tend to do better at detailed work than men do. So perhaps it’s a wash. (HA HA). I don’t know that the statement is any more offensive than others , but in the interest of being polite I try not to use any generalizations. Besides, the one time I come out with one, I’m sure someone will promptly come along and prove me wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unscientific-generalization-women-are-worse-at-loading-the-dishwasher/543046/33 "2010-06-15T11:59:50Z")
Mr. Serenata is terrible at loading the dishwasher. He seems to lack the spatial reasoning to do it. He also sucks at Tetris. My dad was terrible at it. He had great spatial reasoning, but still sucked at it. My brothers, on the other hand, are good at it. Then again, they used to run the dishwasher at a couple large restaurants in the area. So in my experience, unless the guy has actual training on how to use and properly load a dishwasher, he stinks at it. I clearly don’t know all the men in the world, but from those I do know, that’s my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unscientific-generalization-women-are-worse-at-loading-the-dishwasher/543046/34 "2010-06-15T12:21:34Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > That’s a major pet peeve. You rinse if there’s obvious large chunks of food, or if food is crusted on and will probably otherwise stay after the wash. Everything else will be taken care of by the disposal grinder.\*\* It does seem that more women are unaware of this than men,\*\* although my sample size is small. hah You should meet my husband. Loading the dishwasher, once a non-event, has been a source of friction between us ever since we moved into our home 3 years ago. The Kitchenaid dishwasher came with the home, and I have not been happy with it. At our old house we had an Asko, and all you had to do was one brief scrape of the plate, and stick it into the dishwasher any way you liked. The Kitchenaid, or I should say, its rack, is MUCH less forgiving. The husband says it is all in the loading, but he carefully scrapes, and then rinses off each plate or bowl before it ever goes into the dishwasher. I can’t generalize about this. I do think some people take more time to load scientifically, but I don’t think this tendency is gender-specific. ---
**Author:** ![Salem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@Salem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Salem)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unscientific-generalization-women-are-worse-at-loading-the-dishwasher/543046/35 "2010-06-15T14:23:01Z")
I’ll let you know as soon as I find a man that can FIND the dishwasher… (small sample of _two_ male adults used to generate this statement.) Actually, my 9 year old son not only finds the dishwasher, but is fairly good at loading it- as long as you don’t mind a few chips and broken handles when he gets a bit, well, _enthusiastic_ about the chore. ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unscientific-generalization-women-are-worse-at-loading-the-dishwasher/543046/36 "2010-06-15T22:17:47Z")
I base my opinion on a sample of one man and one woman. My wife can get more dishes into the dishwasher than I can, but I consider this a negative, as it then takes longer to put them away. I have no problem running a half-full dishwasher; she can’t abide it. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unscientific-generalization-women-are-worse-at-loading-the-dishwasher/543046/37 "2010-06-16T01:57:25Z")
My wife and I just discussed this last week. She has no concept of the back to front loading methodology. This seems like a no-brainer to me, but silly me. Even after explaining the merits of this loading method, my wife refused to admit it. So, I shook my head and walked away. I mean, is it worth it? I think she knows I’m right, but to admit it might break some sort of a female code. Personally, I don’t even think it’s debatable, so I decided not to debate it. I made my point. She disagreed. What can you do? I even gave her a visual demo, but to no avail. I am going to send this thread to her as a link in email. At least she will know that I am not the only one that thinks she has an issue with loading the dishwasher. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unscientific-generalization-women-are-worse-at-loading-the-dishwasher/543046.md?page=1)