How Should Couples Split Expenses?

Where do you stand on this? How should couples split expenses, if at all?

Now I know there's some men and women who believe the man brings home the bacon and the man should pay for everything. I've seen this topic discussed on Youtube before and there's a lot of guys who say "my women isn't gonna pay for anything, I'm the man". There's also many women who feel the same way.

I'm curious to hear from you guys. Should couples split expenses equally? Should it be divided up proportionate to income? Should the man pay for everything because he's the man?

I've seen other couples split things up according to who makes more. For example if one person makes $100,000 per year and wants to live in a nicer place and the other person makes $50,000 per year and maybe can't afford that lifestyle they split things proportionately so if the rent or mortgage is $1000 a month the higher earner pays say $700 and the other person $300.

What got me exploring this idea recently is I recently sold my company and while I have some money banked, my income is going to take a BIG hit. In the past I'd always paid for everything ie the rent or mortgage, the utilities, etc. Groceries were normally bought by whomever happenned to have the time to go shopping. My girlfriend did contribute, although probably not as much as myself and I never really pushed the issue because I was making more than enough money and didn't really feel like rocking the boat or having that conversation. Also, the first couple years of our relationship she had two bouts with cancer and a couple knee surgeries so was either paying a ton of bills or out of work for quite a while.

More recently however she's working a good job, my income has taken a hit so decided to bring this up with her if she thought she'd be able to chip in towards the mortgage or split utilities. The conversation didn't go over too well, she wound up getting quite upset over the whole thing.

Curious how you and your spouse or significant other contribute towards expenses and does it work for you?