Women are more choosy about partners than men

Women have fought for equality for as long as I can remember. But while they've achieved it in most parts of their lives, it seems there is one area where men and women are not equal at all. A recent survey of modern relationships, to mark the 60th anniversary of 'Woman's Hour,' revealed that while most men are happy to settle down with a woman who is simply "good enough", the majority of women are still looking for Mr Right, a kind of fantasy dream man against whom every other suitor will be ruthlessly judged - and probably found wanting.

The result, of course, is that most, blokes come up short and are despatched to the scrap heap, while the woman in question continues her relentless - and usually unsuccessful - search for the perfect man. So why are modern women so downright fussy in love?

Personally, I think there are two major factors at play here. The first is to do with money, and specifically this generation of women's ability to earn it like never before.

The second is the flipside of the female psyche from the one that forges a career - the part which, fuelled by romantic books and films, retains an ideal of a Mr Right which may simply not exist. There was a time, of course, when a woman didn't have much opportunity to make a choice about her man at all. Her father would scrutinise any prospective suitor, satisfy himself and give his daughter in marriage.

But now women are taught from their schooldays that they can be academic champions and worldbeaters, and rightly so; they are doing better than the boys at most things these days. The result is that women have more successful and diverse careers than ever before, and with that professional success comes financial independence. In a single generation, women have cast off the reliance they've had on men for centuries. I suspect far too many women today have entirely unrealistic expectations of what a marriage or a partnership can be. We're brought up as little girls on romantic notions of being swept off our feet by some Mills and Boon hero whose eyes will glisten with delight as we float down the aisle like Cinderella in a white confection and alluring veil. He'll install us in a trouble-free little love-nest with roses around the door. The children will be cute, biddable and always well behaved.

Perhaps the birds and small furry animals will arrive, as they did for Snow White, and whistle while they do the housework. It will unquestionably be happy ever after. But it's not. There were lots of things my mother said that I thought were nonsense, but with which I now concur. "A marriage", she used to tell me, "is something you have to work at. It's not just about romance and having fun. It's a contract, and you have to fulfil your part of the bargain.