IQ tests: women score higher than men

The findings represent a dramatic twist in the battle of the sexes, as in the past 100 years of IQ testing, women have lagged behind men by as much as five points.

But now the gap has closed and females have stolen the lead.

The results have been published by James Flynn, a world-renowned expert in IQ testing, who believes the demands of the modern age are raising standards of intelligence.

He said: "In the last 100 years the IQ scores of both men and women have risen, but women’s have risen faster.

"This is a consequence of modernity. The complexity of the modern world is making our brains adapt and raising our IQ."

One theory for the result is that the demands of juggling family life and building a career have made women more intelligent.

Another theory is those women have always had the potential for higher results, but are only now realising it.

Flynn, who will publish the findings in a new book, added: “The brains of modern people are growing differently and showing increased cognitive complexity which we measure as increases in IQ.

“This improvement is more marked for women than for men because they were disadvantaged in the past.”

But he said more data was needed to explain the trend.

Supporting the notion that women are more than capable of taking on the stereotypically-male hunter-gatherer role, is Helena Jamieson, 33, a consultant who studied English literature at Cambridge.

On her marriage to stay-at home father Luke, 37, she said: “We have done the role reversal. I’m definitely the more intellectual person in the relationship and I’m at work full time while he is raising our daughter.

“I think women probably always knew deep down that they were the more intelligent ones – but as the gentler sex we were quiet about it and let men continue to believe they ruled the world.”