In the western world, gender equality means that men and women have the same rights and duties. Therefore, women earn their own money and should pay their share at restaurants and bars. Men should stop paying for women and getting nothing in return.
If a woman plans a relationship with a man, she should consider his income. She should earn at least as much as him, so he won’t have to financially support her for the rest of his life if they live together. We can be flexible and accept that a woman earns 15% less than the man. However, if a woman earns 30% less than the man for 10 years, the accumulated wealth difference between the spouses will become significant.
Even if the two people aren’t married, being the financial support of your girlfriend can be a problem. Even if she doesn’t earn a lot of money, it doesn’t mean she has no expectations. For example, I remember a housewife who asked her husband to pay for photography school fees ($6000/yearly for 2 years) plus $4000 photo equipment.
If you share your life with a woman today and start to make her luxurious presents, it will be difficult to sustain this behavior for 40 years. She will likely not understand why she doesn’t receive luxurious presents after you decide to stop making them.
I have observed situations where the man earned less than the woman. I have heard of open-minded women, but I have never met a couple where the woman tolerated her husband earning less money than her. In fact, when it happened, the woman asked the man to compensate for his lack of money with something else, such as doing all the household chores. However, when a woman earns less than a man, I am not aware of any man who asked his wife or girlfriend to perform household chores. The difference is obvious. When the man doesn’t earn money, the woman is bossy and authoritarian. When the woman doesn’t earn money, the man isn’t bossy and authoritarian.