It really isn’t a woman’s world. First, women fought to get the vote, equal rights and pay and equal access to all of life’s goodies and now we read that men, when looking for a life partner, definitely don’t want a woman who is cleverer than they are.

Now this is not a survey of Maltese men but of American men, but there is no doubt that this trend will be found everywhere. If it is the case in the most developed country on earth, I don’t even want to think about what men in less-developed countries, including Malta, would actually say about this subject – if the television cameras were not on them of course!

There are many ways around this, of course. You can pretend that the man is cleverer – and plenty of smart Maltese women do just that, adopting a policy of being sweet, being nice and saying about a quarter of what they really think, and not contradicting their males at any cost.

This is apparently a far better way to get your man than talking about your sales or other work triumphs, although it can work as a way for a man to impress a woman. That has to be left to our Neanderthal caveman, who is meant to tell us about all his work exploits while we look suitably impressed.

Of course women are actually impressed by what the sales triumphs mean in terms of their spending power as their potential mates, but that is another story...

One American journalist wrote an article on this subject in the New York Times. Her main claim, that women become less desirable as they become more successful, is surely a worrying concept for all of us mums and dads who invest as much time, energy and sheer hard work in our daughters’ education as in that of our sons.

We don’t even rail against the fact that, as we age, our looks have to be maintained far more than men’s. Women spend a massive amount of time and money, far more than men do, on their appearance, from clothes to make-up, from hairdressing bills to beauty treatments ranging from facials to Botox and beyond.

To be fair on Maltese men though, there isn’t the same abandonment there was in the past... some men are really bothering today, and it is indeed a relief to see so many of the younger middle-aged generation of Maltese men trying to keep up their appearance.

For us women this news means that we don’t just have to worry about lines, grey hair, saggy bits and pieces – but also if we are cleverer than them or not. Mind boggling! You might be able to grab him but apparently it is much, much harder to keep a man if you are brainier than him, and if you dare let it show.

After American journalist Maureen Dowd wrote this article, she was asked out to lunch by a well-known actor who was dating another bright star. He confessed to her that it was all true, and that he too found it difficult to live with another y chromosome, as someone has to “make the hearth” as he put it.

I guess in our case we would say someone has to make the mqarrun... babes with brains have to hide their brains or be just as “housewifey” as the real full-time housewife to try and keep their men, although apparently this still doesn’t work because men just don’t want to be with someone who they feel cleverer than.

Apparently the only exception is younger men. Hence Madonna, in dating and marrying a man 10 years younger than her in the form of the delectable and hunky Guy Ritchie, really was on to something clever.

Younger men don’t feel as threatened if their girlfriend or wife is cleverer than them. Its almost as if the fact that they are older is a valid excuse and therefore less of a threat.

In fact, younger men who like older women (a minority but their number is on the increase) are often the opposite of your average male (who always lusts after the younger blonde model) in that men who are younger than those they desire, specifically find older, cleverer and more experienced women much sexier than your average blond bombshell.

And this is all backed up by scientific research. A study of college students in the US confirmed that the majority of males wanted a woman who was younger than them, less smart and in a subordinate job.

So if you have brain, if you are a babe with a brain, you have to find a way of masking it. You definitely have to put your career on hold or in a second gear to the male, and you definitely cannot be yourself – if that means being bright and sassy. Of course you can be so but then you are going to lower your chances of catching an alpha male, who are always in short supply anyway.

And some of us think that banning “not for girls” Yorkie bars is going to change the sexual dynamics. In the battle between policy and nature or instinct, the latter wins hands down any time.