Keith_W
Major Contributor
That is so untrue. I read an article many years ago called "The Economics of Sex". The author basically argued that different expectations between partner preferences for men and women results in a market distortion. In general, men prefer women who are younger. They do not mind if they are less educated, less wealthy, and less successful than they are. Women are the opposite - less likely to prefer men who are younger, less educated, less wealthy, and less successful than they are. This means that as men and women age, the pool of available partners also changes. For women, men who meet those criteria become more and more scarce. For men, women who meet that criteria become more and more plentiful. This was backed up by research showing that older men are more in demand on dating sites compared to older women. When older men are compared to younger men, surprisingly they found that older men were in just as much demand.
If you are a 50 year old professional woman and you want an older, more successful man - there are very few of them. But if you are a 50 year old successful man and want a younger woman - your potential pool is large. A friend of mine has managed to remain unmarried until now (he is in his mid-40's). He is fit, educated, and lives in a house worth several million dollars. He wants to remain single because he is having so much fun. He told me, more fun now than in his 20's - before he started earning a lot of money. And I know a lot of women > 40 who are single and can't find any men to date.