So what do women really want?

Look at many advertisements and you might be forgiven for thinking that the key to happiness lies in possessing the best car, the cheapest home-insurance, or the tastiest ice-cream. Oh, and also the most beautiful woman imaginable.

Many external forces are getting us to think that we need to be hotwired into a world of glamour if we are to be happy. The idea of the ‘perfect woman’ falls into such thinking.

In a survey conducted by someone who is an expert on relationships between young people, the question was posed to young women: “What do you want in a man?" Out of 1000 answers submitted, the top response - 429 - was that the young women wanted a man to treat her like a lady.

This suggests that idealised or romantic visions of the ‘perfect woman’, while perhaps offering immediate excitement, will only end in frustration. Young men ‘on the prowl’ are, deep down, a real turn-off to women. Instead, women need to be treated with the utmost respect and care. When a man looks at a woman he needs to go beyond what he sees in her physically and explore the features that a woman most shows forth: her tenderness, her special ability to suffer, her ‘inbuilt’ capacity to give life. Pope John Paul II was keen on this latter point (John Paul II, Mulieris dignitatem 19).