‘‘It’s not fair,’’ my ex-boyfriend would lament whenever we argued. ‘‘You women have all the power.’’ He was older than me and of European heritage, and I used to find this belief of his endearing – perhaps because it was so far from what a lot of women actually believe as to be almost laughable.

Today, so many women I know don’t feel they have a power over men. If anything, it is the other way. And most, thankfully, don’t want or expect to have such power, preferring equality, not just in pay, boardrooms and parliament, but in personal relationships and the bedroom.

But, with divorce rates so high, infidelity rife, and the so-called man shortage (myth or not, there does appear to be a dearth of eligible men), relationship stability is feeling rocky.

So, my ex’s idea that men are putty to women’s sensuality, beholden to the feminine mystique, might be something I see as quaint and nostalgic. But to young women today, it’s plain archaic or pure fantasy.

Speak to sexually active teenage girls today, as I have been lately while researching a book, and it is evident that many feel the only means they have to beguile men is through sex. And even then, they feel a need to be overt with their flirt.