Women’s Personal Resources

This entry provides a brief overview of research about associations between women’s economic resources and their long-term partner preferences. These associations are of special interest in light of women’s tendency to attribute more importance to financial resources in a partner than men do (Buss 2011). Whether this pattern is a result of evolved adaptations, sociocultural factors, or some combination of the two continues to be a subject of controversy. Evolutionary psychological theory stipulates that female reproductive success depends on resources necessary to raise offspring. Hence, women should prefer partners with an ability to invest direct resources in offspring, resulting in a preference for good financial prospects (e.g., Buss and Schmitt 1993). From a sociocultural view, pervasive gender inequalities make women more likely to adopt domestic rather than provider roles. To compensate for the limited resources associated with domestic work, women seek out mates with good economic prospects (e.g., Zentner and Eagly 2015).