So if women are better educated and perfectly capable of earning their keep, why do they put up with straying husbands?

It is a question that deserves some attention as infidelity is becoming a modern- day malady. The temptation to stray is fuelled by factors such as long work hours (where colleagues may become confidantes and more); travelling for business (who knows what evils lie abroad?); and cavalier attitudes towards the sanctity of the wedded union (rising divorce rates).

At Care Corner, which provides relationship counselling at its family service centres, the number of cases involving infidelity has risen by about 20 per cent since 2001. It has a New Rainbow Support Group for victims of spousal infidelity, most of whom are women, says counsellor Cho Chia Min.

Indeed, men still appear to be the bigger adulterers (look at Neo, Tiger Woods, John Terry and Ashley Cole). However, experts say unfaithful wives often go unreported and so the notion of women being more faithful may well be illusory.