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Female Mate Choice
Although, in humans, both males and females are choosy in terms of whom they decide to mate with, as is seen in nature, females exhibit even more mate choice selection than males. According to Bateman's principle of Lifespan Reproductive Success (LRS), human females display the least variance of the two sexes in their LRS due to their high obligatory parental investment, that is a nine month gestational period, as well as lactation following birth in order to feed offspring so that their brain can grow to the required size.

Historically, human female sexual selection can be examined by looking at ways in which males and females are sexually dimorphic, especially in traits that serve little other evolutionary purpose. For example, male traits such as the presence of beards, overall lower voice pitch, and average greater height are thought to be sexually selected traits as they confer benefits to either the women selecting for them, or to their offspring. Experimentally, women have reported a preference for men with beards and lower voices. (ref original paper cited in book?)

Female mate choice hinges on many different coinciding male traits, and the trade off between many of these traits must be assessed. The ultimate traits most salient to female human mate choice, however, are parental investment, resource provision and the provision of good genes to offspring, and many phenotypic traits are thought to be selected for as they act as an indication of one of these three major traits. The relative importance of these traits when considering mate selection differ depending on the type of mating arrangement females engage in; human women engage in both short term and long term mating arrangements, and so her mate choice preferences change depending on the function of the type of arrangement.

Long Term Strategies
In long-term mating arrangements, women typically look for males who will provide a high level of parental investment, and who can provide resources to the woman or to her offspring. The provision of economic resources, or the potential to acquire many economic resources is the most obvious cue towards the ability of a man to provide resources, and women have been shown experimentally to rate the importance of their partner’s financial status twice as highly as men. (cite original study). However, many other traits exist that may act as cues towards a man’s ability to provide resources, that have been sexually selected for in women’s evolutionary history. These include older age – older males have had more time to accrue resources, industriousness, dependability and stability – if a woman’s long term partner is not emotionally stable or is not dependable then their provision of resources to her and her offspring are likely to be inconsistent. Additionally, the costs associated with an emotionally unstable partner such as jealousy and manipulativeness may outweigh the benefits associated with the resources they are able to provide.

Short Term Strategies
Women do not always seek out and engage in long term mating arrangements. This is evidenced by factors such as the evolved male tendency to seek out multiple sexual partners - a trait that could not have evolved if women were not also historically engaging in short term arrangements - and by the tendency of some women to pursue affairs outside of their long-term couple pairings.

David Buss outlines several hypotheses as to the function of womens' short term mate choices:

Resource Hypothesis: Women may engage in short term mating in order to gain resources that they may not be able to gain from a long-term partner, or that a long-term partner may not be able to provide consistently. These resources may be food, protection for the woman and her children from aggressive men who may capture or sexually coerce them, or status, by providing the woman with a higher social standing. Women may also benefit from having several short term mating arrangements through paternity confusion - if the paternity of her offspring is not certain, she may be able to accrue resources from several men as a result of this uncertainty.

Genetic Benefit Hypothesis: Women may choose to engage in short term mating arrangements in order to aid conception if her long term partner is infertile, to gain superior genes to those of her long term partner for her offspring, or to acquire different genes to those that her partner can provide in order to increase the genetic diversity of her offspring. This relates to what is known as the sexy son hypothesis. If a woman acquires genes from a high quality male, her offspring will likely have higher mate value, resulting in their increased reproductive success.

Mate Expulsion and Mate Switching: Women may engage in a short term mating arrangement in order to cause her long term partner to end their relationship; in other words, to facilitate a break-up. Women may also use short term mating if their current partner has depreciated in value, and they wish to 'trade-up' and find a partner that they believe has higher value.

Short Term for Long Term Goals: Women may use short term sexual relationships in order to assess a mate's value as a long term partner, or in the hopes that the short term arrangement will result in one that is long term.

Women's mate choice is not as straightforward as selecting a mate that displays all of her desired qualities. Often, potential mates will possess some qualities that are desirable and some that are not, so women must assess the relative costs and benefits of their potential partners' traits and 'trade off'.

Women's mate choice is not as straightforward as selecting a mate that displays all of her desired qualities. Often, potential mates will possess some qualities that are desirable and some that are not, so women must assess the relative costs and benefits of their potential partners' traits and 'trade off'. Women's mate choices will also be constrained by the context in which they are making them, resulting in conditional mate choices. Some of the conditions that may influence female mate choice include the woman's own perceived attractiveness, the woman's personal resources, mate copying and parasite stress.