Men Still Paying For Dates, Study Says

It's safe to say that dating rules have definitely changed since, oh, the 1950s. Men are no longer required to pick a woman up and be introduced to the 'rents, meeting people comes about in many ways (hello OkCupid), and it's totally fine to get barbecue sauce all over your face on the first date (or is that just us?). 

But one thing has stuck around: who pays for dates.

A new survey to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association has found that despire the breakdown of conventional gender roles, men still pay for dates (after nearly 50 years of feminism, the survey notes).

Out of 17,000 participants interviewed, 84 percent of men and 58 percent of women reported that men pay for most of the dating expenses. Of course, 57 percent of women say they offer to help pay, although 39 percent said they hoped men would reject their offers to pay.

Of the women, 44 percent said they were bothered when men expected women to pay, although 64 percent of men said that women should contribute to date night expenses. In fact, it might be a deal-breaker; 44 percent of men said they would stop dating a woman who never pays (76 percent said they would feel guilty about taking a woman's money, however).

Still, this particular courtship ritual might change in the future; the survey found that younger men and women in their 20s were more likely to fight for more egalitarian practices, where men and women split the charges evenly. "The data suggest that the deep-rooted courtship ritual around who pays is also changing along with the transformation of the relative material and social power of women and men," the survey says. No word on how non-heterosexual relationships work this one out.