John Townsend draws on 2000 questionnaires and extensive quotations from 200 intimate interviews to show how deep-seated desires and emotions guide our actions in dating, sexual relationships, and marriage. Townsend argues against the politically correct belief that differences in sexual behavior are "culturally constructed", and shows that these differences are universal and rooted in our evolutionary past. 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 preferred expensively dressed men to more attractive but apparently less successful men, and men chose more attractive women regardless of their professional status. Lucidly and accessibly written, What Women Want -- What Men Want brings new clarity to one of the most intractable debates of our time.