[toyg]

The problem is that there are loads of women with the opposite view at yours; and I'd argue they are still in the majority in most countries. For them, even the suggestion of splitting the bill means the man is cheap. So the safest default, for a man, is to go with tradition.

[twobyfour]

I suspect the norms also differ from place to place even within a country. I would not be surprised if going dutch is more typical in NYC and the man paying is typical in, say, Peoria. Certainly, I've rarely encountered a New Yorker who's uncomfortable with splitting the bill. So trying to draw broad enough conclusions to write a universally applicable article about it is ridiculous.