There have been books written about a theory that men are apparently from Mars and women are from Venus and a Hollywood movie made about understanding women and their wants in life.

Women in most countries are still fighting and struggling to reach top positions in the corporate arena.  Although, in saying that, there are more and more women occupying top positions in companies and even countries around the globe.  Australian Prime Minister is a woman and so is the United States Secretary of State.

So what is it that women want in our era of independence, high social status and financial stability exhibited by many women in the Western countries?  Obviously, the answer will be different depending on the country of residence of a particular woman in question, as well as her social and financial status.  However, if you were to assume that we are discussing an average educated woman living in a Western country, you may be surprised with the answers.

Most career women of today between the ages of 30 and 40 are craving one thing – less time away from home.  They want more time to spend with the family and the loved ones, but often the option of ‘work-life balance’ is more an illusion than a reality and makes juggling family and career a struggle.  The fact that, as proven by statistical analysis, our working day is much longer today than it was half a century ago is not helping the cause.

After decades of feminism movement and fighting for female rights, a large number of women today have desire for more simple things in life, like having an option not to work and to look after the family, which is impossible in most cases due to the financial restraints.  Strangely enough, many women are now wanting what was the norm 60 or more years ago and what they fought so hard to eradicate: doors being opened for them in cars and buildings, men buying flowers for no reason, men paying for a coffee or a meal after a date regardless of whether a woman can afford it and men being the strong one allowing the female to let her guard down.  We have battled so hard to promote our rights and to allow females equal treatment with men, that somewhere over the years we have beaten the concept of what constitutes a gentleman out of most males, not for the lack of trying, but for many being scared to appear chauvinistic.

There is one want that women may not admit to but always discuss behind closed doors and that is wanting males to express themselves emotionally on regular basis.  This is where you roll your eyes and remind the rest of the readers that men and women are from different planets.  But all jokes aside, they say that a way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, well a way to a woman’s heart is definitely through her ears, as woman love and strive on compliments.

The moral of the story is that women living in any century will always appreciate men who are gentlemen and can verbally express themselves well and who are not scared to show affection without being sleazy, which is an art form in itself.

Are you a gentleman? Can you make a genuine compliment to a woman standing next to you? Please do not be scared to show it to all around you starting today. If you do, you will come much closer to understanding (and more importantly fulfilling) the women’s needs and wants.