Professor Graves, one of Australia’s most influential scientists, believes that women will win the battle of the sexes – and in the most definitive way possible.

She says that the inherent fragility of the male sex chromosome, the Y sex chromosome, means that men are sliding towards extinction.

Professor Graves’s prediction hinges around the number of genes on the male and female sex chromosomes.

The female, or X, chromosome, contains a healthy 1,000 or so genes. …

Lacking a mate, the Y chromosome finds it more difficult to patch up mistakes and so decays away.

Professor Graves, of Canberra University, said: ‘The X chromosome is all alone in the male but in the female it has a friend, so it can swop bits and repair itself.

‘If the Y gets hit, it’s a downward spiral.’