A good way to predict the degree to which sexual equality exists or not in a given species is to look at the level of parental investment from each sex. If the investment is equal, either because the male and female work together to protect extremely fragile offspring (penguins) or because they just spray their sperm and eggs into the sea and offspring don't need more care after that (species of fish), you get physical and seductive equality of the sexes. If you have a species in which the males take care of the children, and the females are anonymous egg donors, you get choosy males and bigger, aggressive females with showy plumage. In this case, the males can’t screw around because they need to make sure their offspring are taken care of.
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