This was the topic of a soberish discussion I had with my work colleagues recently on a night out. During the course of the evening, it emerged that most of the men in our group had a big problem with women drinking pints, particularly pints of Guinness.

They said it was unfeminine and one boldly stated he would run a mile if he went on a blind date with a woman who was sipping a pint when he walked in.

Like most annoying people, I raised the issue again in a sober setting to make sure that the men concerned really did hold the views they'd expressed when emboldened by alcohol. It turns out they do. In fact, when we asked the Breakfast Show audience on Newstalk, almost everyone who got in touch, male and female, said women drinking pints was a turn-off.

I was told that women who "try to be men" are unattractive. I was also told that those women will eventually turn out to be "butch and fat", and one man told me he would automatically assume that the woman with a pint in her hand is "bound to be hairy".

So what on earth is it about the pint-drinking female that strikes such terror in the hearts of men? When I was a student, everyone drank pints and no one batted an eye when a group of women lined up to order pints at the bar. It was simply a cost-cutting exercise.

I have no recollection of the male students recoiling in terror at the sight of us drinking from glasses the same size as their own. So last week's reaction prompts a number of questions. Has something happened to men to make them change their opinion of women drinking pints? Do women not drink pints anymore, therefore making the sight an unusual one? Or was my straw poll conducted amongst a group of bigots who expect women to bear perfect children, and cook marvellous dinners while the man relaxes in his slippers with a whiskey in hand?

Perhaps some men have had enough of women being their equal and the drinking of pints is something they have to hang on to at all costs. Maybe it's the only thing they feel allowed to express an opinion on and, for some reason, it's acceptable to make outrageously sexist claims about females who drink from a big glass.

But the other argument may also be true. We Irish women are more sophisticated now.

We now know enough about things such as cocktails and good wines not to be bothered with pints, which invariably go flat before you see the bottom of the glass. The innocence of the early-'90s student has gone out the window. Our sophistication went as far as ale, Guinness and lager and stopped there. A good wine was an alien thing to the Celtic cubs waiting for the roar of the tiger.

But there is a new type of young female around these days, who learns all about fine wines and mixed drinks before she dons her cap and gown on graduation day.

If it has become unusual to see the female of the species with a pint, this may be why it elicits a reaction from men and women alike. It's the ageold thing of picking on the minority. What was once the norm is now an aberration and therefore makes a statement about the person.

But what about the men I consulted? It is their assessment of what drinking pints says about a woman, which really surprised me. It seems that despite all of the progress, men have never really changed. All the red-blooded male wants is a woman who conforms to the ideal of a lady.

They have to put up with the equality stuff in work and in almost every facet of the pseudo-politically correct society we've created. But they don't have to like it. Women continue to be judged on their feminine qualities. What you drink is important to a man because of what it says about you to their friends. If he thinks a pint-drinking woman is probably hairy and will eventually be 15 stone, then so do his friends. It doesn't matter that you have your own business or have written the latest theory paper on relativity, it's how you will appear that is most important to this breed of maleness.

That is not to say there aren't people who don't care who drinks what. For those women who couldn't care less, a drink is a drink whether it's in a big glass or a small glass, and thankfully, there are those men who are secure enough to know that a pint of Guinness does not a hairy foot make.