Are women more selfish than their men?

Men have won a crucial round in the ongoing battle of the sexes – by proving that they take a more selfless approach to relationships than women.

A new survey has revealed that men are more likely to sacrifice their own happiness for that of their partner – whereas ladies are far more likely to put themselves first.

Women vastly outstrip men in the selfish stakes, being nearly three times as likely as men to put their belongings first, according to the survey by Legal and General.

British men also proved that they would be more prepared to undertake personal burdens and social sacrifices so their partner didn’t have to.

Nearly a quarter of British men – 24 per cent – said that they would give up chocolate to save their partner from doing so, while only one in ten women would return the favour.

Men are also the more generous sex when it comes to volunteering to be the nominated driver.

More than a quarter – 27 per cent – said they would do this, compared with just over one in 10 women – 13 per cent – who would make the same sacrifice.

Gender roles continue to be a strong part of any relationship and the survey results support the belief that men should be chivalrous and sacrifice things for their partner.

Steph Senyszyn, a 22-year-old bar manager from Lincoln, said that she has been with her boyfriend for nearly four years and is definitely the most selfish in the relationship.

“I agree that women are more selfish than men,” she said.

“My boyfriend always jokes that when he asks to borrow something from me, I always suddenly seem to need it – even if I’ve not touched it in months.

“If he asked me to give up smoking, or something like that, I doubt that I would – even though I’ve made him do similar things a million times before.

“Maybe that’s just because I’m a bad representation of my gender.”

Meanwhile, Hannah Smith, a 20-year-old student from Welton, near Lincoln, said she didn’t think a divide between the two sexes based on selflessness was true.

“My girl friends are probably going to kill me for this but I’d put my boyfriend before my favourite possession, or anything like that,” she said.

“Hopefully, he’d do the same for me. On the whole, I’m pretty sure he would.

“Obviously, I’m speaking hypothetically – if I was in the position where I had to do something like that. I’d like to avoid giving anything up in the first place.

“I’d like my boyfriend to be happy and, if it came down to it, would do anything I could to make sure it was the case.”