What women want-- what men want : why the sexes still see love and commitment so differently / John Marshall Townsend.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-282) and index.

Introduction: attractiveness, sexuality, and choosing mates -- Women's and men's sexualities: differences in arousal, goals, and selectivity -- Emotional alarms: the link between sex and love -- What do women want? women's perceptions of sexual attractiveness -- Choosing partners for marriage: male status and female competition -- What do men want? men's criteria for choosing partners -- The dating-mating market: the man shortage and marriage squeeze -- Romance, male dominance and the quest for investment -- What men and women want in marriage -- Who does the diapers and the dishes? the domestic division of labor -- Are men and women alike around the globe? sex in China and Samoa -- Conclusion: coping with sex differences and cultural change.

Print version record.

Following the work of E.O. Wilson, Desmond Morris, and David Buss, What Women Want-What Men Want offers compelling new evidence about the real reasons behind men's and women's differing sexual psychologies and sheds new light on what men and women look for in a mate, the predicament of marriage in the modern world, the relation between sex and emotion, and many other hotly debated questions. Drawing upon 2000 questionnaires and 200 intimate interviews that show how our sexual psychologies affect everyday decisions, John Townsend argues against the prevailing ideologically correct belief that differences in sexual behaviour are "culturally constructed." Townsend shows there are deep-seated desires inherited from our evolutionary past that guide our actions. In a fascinating series of experiments, men and women were asked to indicate preferences for potential mates based on their attractiveness and apparent economic status. Women overwhelmingly preferred expensively dressed men to more attractive but apparently less successful men, and men were clearly inclined to choose more attractive women regardless of their professional status.; Townsend's studies also indicate that men are predisposed to value casual sex, whereas women cannot easily separate sexual relations from the need for emotional attachment and economic security. Indeed, wherever men possess sexual alternatives to marriage, and women possess economic alternatives, divorce rates will be high. In the concluding chapter, Townsend draws upon the advice of couples who have maintained their marriages over the years to suggest ways to survive our evolutionary predicament. Lucidly and accessibly written, What Women Want-What Men Want shows us why we are the way we are and brings new clarity to one of the most intractable debates of our time.

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