44 pc women worry when men expect them to help pay for dates

Less than 50 percent of the women confessed that they get bothered when their male partner wants them to share expenses for their dates, a study has revealed.

David Frederick co-authored the study with Janet Lever, of California State University, Los Angeles, and Rosanna Hertz, of Wellesley College.

Conventional notions of chivalry dictate that on a "date," the man pays, whereas egalitarian ideals suggest gender should not determine who pays for the entertainment expenses.

This research examines the extent to which people embrace or reject these competing notions after nearly 50 years of feminism. It is known that most marriages (8 in 10) today are based on sharing the breadwinner's burden, so one question was whether that role is shared prior to marriage and, if so, how early in the dating process.

Consistent with conventional norms, most men (84 percent) and women (58 percent) reported that men pay for most expenses, even after dating for a while.

Over half (57 percent) of women claim they offer to help pay, but many women (39 percent) confessed they hope men would reject their offers to pay, and 44 percent of women were bothered when men expected women to help pay.

Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of men believed that women should contribute to dating expenses, and many feel strongly about that: Nearly half of men (44 percent) said they would stop dating a woman who never pays.

A large majority of men (76 percent), however, reported feeling guilty accepting women's money.

In terms of behavior, even if men are paying a larger proportion of expenses, 4 in 10 men and women agreed that dating expenses were at least partially shared within the first month, and roughly three-fourths (74 percent of men, 83 percent of women) reported some sharing of expenses by six months.