Recent scientific discoveries are working with our experience of the world around us to challenge this view, which has for all of time been considered a universal truth.

Most of us will know that the origins of maleness lie in our DNA with the presence on the Y chromosome of the SRY gene. In combination with an X chromosome, the chromosomal XY combination is created and in a few months, a boy is born to the world.). In itself, the Y chromosome is but a vestige of what started out as an X chromosome. Diminutive and puny, the Y chromosome has been shedding genes furiously over the course of evolutionary time, and it is now a fraction of the size of its partner, the X chromosome. This symbol of manhood, what is considered the mighty male contains only a fiftieth of the whole genome.

Human beings have 23 pairs of chromosomes, with each pair identical except for the XY combination that produces males. Most pairs swap genes back and forth, helping minimize the effects of harmful mutation, but because of the shedding of its genes, the Y’s chromosomal partner is the incompatible X and so no such swaps can occur. This decay therefore dooms the Y chromosome into essentially mating with itself, i.e. swapping molecular material with itself, in a valiant attempt to forestall extinction.

Talk about a delicate balance in the struggle of identity and survival.  But that doughty struggle may be in vain, as it is speculated that in a few million years, the mighty male might be extinct! The bells foretelling this rang out loud on the birth of Dolly the sheep, whose creation did not require the services of the ram. It rings still louder all across the animal kingdom where scientists are discovering more and more animals that can reproduce entirely without the male. The media has taken to the issue with vigor; consider the audacious heading of the National Geographic magazine, "The End of Males? Mouse Made to Reproduce Without Sperm".

And now to testosterone, the vital essence of the man. This, the principal male sex hormone is vital for the development of the characteristics that turn babies into males, and especially the development and maturation of the male sexual organs. In our vain times, testosterone is in high demand as males seek to emphasize other aspects of masculinity that are inspired by the hormone, including muscle growth and strength and increased bone density and strength. The media has been teeming with stories of good intentions turned horribly wrong following the use of anabolic steroids.

But it does not stop there, testosterone has been found to act as a suppressant on the immune system, reducing the body’s capacity to fend of infections and even cancers. This is itself one of the reasons for the gap in life expectancy between males and females, with the females living far much longer. So it is that the human male carries in his essence, what is acting as a poison that promotes his demise.

Clearly it would be rational for the males to work it through their minds that when it comes to survival, the female comes out tops and all the myths about female weakness-are looking ever more shaky as science continues to report the versatility and resilience of the female. And it is not just at the microscopic level; increasingly the human female is not content with lagging in education or ability in the work place. More and more women are proving not just to be as capable, but even more capable than their male counterparts. The equality of women proved a bitter pill for men to swallow, perhaps a lot of water will be needed to bring about the acceptance that perhaps ‘she’ is superior.