The female desire to feel protected and looked after is built into our DNA, says evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller, a professor at the University of New Mexico and author of several books including “The Mating Mind.” “It’s a mismatch between what progressive women say they want and what they actually respond to,” Miller told me. “Women’s instinctive mate preferences have evolved for hundreds of thousands of years for guys who are competent, strong, good providers, good protectors and happy with a sexual division of labor,” he added. Women want “decisive men who are also compassionate and thoughtful.” A 2018 study from Iowa State University backs this up, reporting that progressive women prefer men who demonstrate more traditional dating behaviors. The women found these men to be “more attractive” because they signal a willingness “to invest by being protective, committed, and by providing resources.”