Meet the beta mails

Are you with the wrong man? Successful women are now turning their backs on driven, ambitous men and finding happiness with laid-back, domestic types. Catherine Gray investigates the career woman’s best-kept secret

You’re a successful woman pulling in an enviable salary. You have impeccable clothes, a gym-honed figure, a house that Sunday supplements are pleading to shoot and, as your man is an equally alpha career trailblazer, you split domestic tasks clean down the middle with no power struggles. And then you wake up.

Sorry to be a killjoy, but the reality is, alpha/alpha relationships often lead to conflict, not blissful harmony. And this is far from the only reason you should consider a beta male. Allow us to explain. Alpha females are sharp-as-samurai career women who are brimming with confidence, hooked on fashion, gymming it and grabbing life with both hands. Shove aside stereotypes of man-scaring, ruthless bruisers; think Cate Blanchett and Reese Witherspoon rather than Mrs Thatcher and Anne Robinson.

Four in 10 women now out-earn their men. However, the alpha female intimidates the stubbornly traditional alpha male and, shock horror, threatens to outshine him.

To read the full feature, order the current issue of eve magazine