Posted February 14, Reviewed by Lybi Ma. Each year, Match. But the Singles in America study came with particularly heavy fanfare from women's magazines. I still remember when this piece of research hit my desk, and I leaned forward a little bit in my chair to read its seemingly feminist ink.
After looking into the mating preferences of more than 5, men and women by way of survey, researcher and biological anthropologist Helen Fisher, Ph. According to Fisher's numbers, men desire smart, strong, successful women; 87 percent of men said they would date a woman who was more intellectual than they were, who was better educated, and who made considerably more money than they did, while 86 percent said they were in search of a woman who was confident and self-assured.
Plenty of articles around the web followed, saying this was a win for women and men, too , but there I was in early , reading those headlines with an eyebrow raised and an air of skepticism. I have also watched these same smart, independent women struggle in bad relationships or fly solo for extended periods of time, despite their best efforts to land a good guy.
So, what did this mean? If 87 percent of men were actively looking to couple with them, why were they still single? Plus, the ladies of my friend circle who were actually in healthy relationships did not exactly fit the description laid out by Fisher. Although they were super smart and attractive in their own right, the perpetually matched in my sphere did not fit a clear-cut profile, and I would not automatically group them into the same category as very career -oriented, put-together Amal.
Clearly, they had some secret sauce of attraction , but what? There are no limits. So now I was confused by the research, the real-life relationships around me, and the response from men β gaps, gaps, gaps between all these pieces that seemingly did not fit together. I finally did what any skeptical journalist would do: I kept my eyes open for more research.
