The Writers' Lounge

I definitely think that a lot of romances do the alpha man/beta female thing, but definitely not all do. (And there's no real reason to write a romance that way.) *shrugs* Catherine Asaro writes science fiction romances, and it's almost always the opposite, in fact...the alpha woman and the beta male. So there's no rule, and plenty who write things in any way imaginable.

One can of course, also, write f/f romances in order to avoid the "gender inequality" bit. TBH, I tend to prefer these (when they don't go into, "Oooh, lesbian porn! Wee!") as there are so few strong female protagonists in most genres, and it's refreshing to see female characters who don't depend on men to solve or fix things for them - they just pull up their bras and do it themselves. (Melissa Scott is a good example of this. If you're ever looking for cyberpunk, I'd totally recommend her.)