Does Gender Affect Dating Style?

As we have explained, there are three categories of daters: players, casual daters, and long-term relationship seekers.

Common wisdom says that men fall more often into the first two categories and women into the last, but that just doesn’t hold up when you look at all the Paris Hilton types you’ll find in any bar or restaurant on the weekend.

Women can be players as much as men can be. Men can want relationships. Gender just can’t explain things.

The reason for this consistency between genders is another topic in itself. The range of accepted morals surrounding sexual behavior has broadened, especially among the younger generations. It is common to hear that teenagers have sex clubs involving both genders.

As teenagers reach their twenties, their earlier sexual behavior influences their dating style. Some high schoolers say that it is easier for them to achieve a casual hook up with someone than to ask them on a more formal date.

This was not how it was in the past. In earlier times, women were not seen as players. That was more a label reserved for men. When it came to dating, there was more propriety followed by single men and women. In those days, unmarried men and women had friends of their own gender who got together for shared interests, such as going to the cinema, hiking or dining together. Behavior like casual dating did not exist back in those days.

When it comes to settling down, though, a woman’s biological clock will still sometimes make her put pressure on the man, or at least that will be his perspective on things.

But it’s not as if men don’t have an inner clock, too. In fact, when people 40 and over are dating, men are just as likely as women to want to settle down into a long term relationship.

Jerusha Stewart is a published expert and nationally-recognized speaker on the single life. Her site on Singles Beyond 40 shares a wealth of resources on how to live and love into your 40s, 50s, and beyond.