Generally, women prefer men who are likely to perform high parental investment and have good genes. Women prefer men with good financial status, who are more committed, who are more athletic, and who are healthier. Some inaccurate theories have been inspired by parental investment theory. The "structural powerlessness hypothesis" proposes that women strive to find mates with access to high levels of resources because as women, they are excluded from these resources directly. However, this hypothesis has been disproved by studies which found that financially successful women place an even greater importance on financial status, social status, and possession of professional degrees. Sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the difference in body size between male and female members of a species as a result of intrasexual selection, which is sexual selection that acts within a sex. High sexual dimorphism and larger body size in males is a result of male-male competition for females. Primate species in which groups are formed of many females and one male have higher sexual dimorphism than species that have both multiple females and males, or one female and one male. Polygynous primates have the highest sexual dimorphism, and polygamous and monogamous primates have less. Decreased polygyny is associated with increased paternal investment. The demographic transition The demographic transition describes the modern decrease in both birth and death rates. From a Darwinian perspective, it does not make sense that families with more resources are having fewer children. One explanation for the demographic transition is the increased parental investment required to raise children who will be able to maintain the same level of resources as their parents. See also Altricial Cinderella effect Cost of raising a child Kin selection Mate desertion Parental care in birds Precocial r/K selection theory References Further reading Clutton-Brock, T.H. and C. Godfray. 1991. "Parental investment," in Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach. Edited by J.R. Krebs and N.B. Davies, pp. 234–262. Boston: Blackwell. Geary, D. C. (2005). Evolution of paternal investment. In D. M. Buss (Ed.), The handbook of evolutionary psychology (pp. 483–505). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Full text Evolutionary biology Reproduction in animals Ethology Sexual selection Evolutionary psychology