(continues...)
To understand women and their relationship with men, you need to understand something. Women's bodies are inwards>outwards, women's psychology is inwards>outwards, women's worlds are inwards>outwards but, sexually speaking, women have to let someone in. If you can understand the impact this irony has in them, then you are half way into understanding women.
Of course, this does not mean women are the saints or the victims here. Women unconsciously think about this sexual reality with deep intimacy and act accordingly. That's it. They will not just let anyone in, they will be very picky about men and sex as they feel it is their intimacy at stake in the process. This is the base operation in the equation. Another component is that women have got a complete cocktail of hormones in their bodies due to something doctors call menstrual cycle. As a consequence of their (bloody) periods, they are complicated to the point they won't even understand themselves occasionally; even though, they are more sure of what they want to feel fine.
First and foremost, security. Security means three things for a woman: physical security, emotional security (a. k. a. faithfulness) and temporal (and not temporary) security (a. k. a. stability). Among these, the most important feature they want in a man is stability. Even if it is quite known that women usually like more "Mr. Jerk" than "Mr. Nice" because he finds him more manly, at the end, single women usually marry a "Mr. Nice" because she finds him more stable. And because...
They are more chivalrous, intimate, and tender. One of the best ways in which a single woman can ensure herself that the man who is giving her security now will not become her main aggressor later (Believe it or not, their brains are really this weird) is to see how men behave in their daily life. Even when women can easily live and survive without us (they can open the doors and also carry heavy things without our help), a chivalrous offering will decidedly work in the man's favour... Just don't exaggerate your chivalrousness because...
If you exaggerate it you will be dropped. Women like to trust in the fact their men will be able to provide her some security from outer aggressions as well. That is to say, if he looks weak to her, he will probably look weak for other men and, therefore, it is more convenient for her to look somewhere else. Women will find attractive those men who behave manfully before the world but tenderly with them, even if he's not the most stunning man in the world. His manliness will show her how protective he can be; his tenderness, how supporting he can be if she needs him. A woman's brain is like that.