It was always women who wanted to settle down and start a family, while men dragged their heels... or so we thought.

These days, it seems the ladies are being beaten to it by their menfolk.

According to research, men are getting broody too. And what is more, single men are more likely to dream of having children than women.

The experts believe it's all down to greater equality. Lead researcher Helen Fisher, of Rutgers University, in New Jersey, said: 'Men today are more like [the female archetype] than we have seen in generations. They are becoming the broody ones, they are more likely to want to settle down sooner.

'Complicating matters is the change in women's attitudes towards life and relationships, mostlydriven by the huge numbers flooding into the workforce,' Miss Fisher told The Sunday Times.

'Women gain self-confidence, self-worth, money and experience through work and want things that men have for years taken for granted.'

'Now those things are within reach and they are grabbing them.'

The study of 5,199 single men and women in the US was conducted for dating website Match.com.

It found that 51 per cent of unattached men aged 21 to 34 wanted children, compared to just 46 per cent of single women that age. Men in older age groups were also more broody, with 27 per cent of single guys aged 35 to 44 wanted to have children. But the figure was just 16 per cent for women.

Although the research was conducted in the US, British academics believe that the phenomenon also affects men this side of the Atlantic.

Adrienne Burgess, of the Fatherhood Institute think-tank, said: 'Men have always wanted children. It is just that in the past many men, wanting to be responsible, waited until they felt financially ready to support a family.

'That becomes less of a problem when they have a workingpartner who is often earning as much if not more than them.'

(Read by Renee Haines. Renee Haines is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)