They tried to act the way men do thinking that would help them get attract an ideal partner(get a good education and a good job so you can support a family). Except they aren't interested in the analagous version of the woman that their counterpart men are after, they want their 'equal.' And men and women are not 'equal' and quality men are not interested in dating someone with a biography like their own.
Well this 27 year-old female Ph.D. would LOVE to find an analogous version of the traditional female counterpart: Maid, chef, nanny, sexual object and source of fawning affection, all rolled into one. Are you kidding me? Where do I sign up??
Being as I'm evidently too old, miserable, and infertile to attract a comparably-educated man, that is.
Wrong: the women who act the way men do, do so because it is in their nature to act that way, and it has nothing to do with trying to attract a partner. It's the personality they were born with. I speak from personal experience. I've always been aware of the fact that I "think like a man," and I'm a heck of a lot more ambitious and goal-oriented than my husband.
I know that's true in my case. I am 36 years old, an attorney by training, and started my own legal publishing business a few years ago and am now doing very well. Stuff like educational degrees, career path and potential, etc. are not prerequisites for a potential mate.
I prefer younger, fresher faced women, with balanced interests and values and goals that are at least aligned with my own values and goals. Race for me isn't a factor.
I quit law firm life because I didn't like having a 1/2 dozen bosses in my life, all jockeying for my attention. I didn't like 2600-3000 hour a year work schedules, seldom seeing my loved ones, finding it impossible to take significant vacation time because of conflicting work demands, having to check my voicemail 4 or 5 times a day on sick days because the people in my life were incapable of making a decision by themselves, and of course the politics and backstabbing.
Naturally, I am suspectof a potential mate that isn't as alienated by that kind of schedule as I am. To each their own, but I don't want a part-time mate who will make me and our family a lower priority than work demands.
$180k and a $20k bonus isn't worth it (it gets cut almiost in half by taxes anyway). I know - I work less now and make more money. It's all an illusion.
I walked away from that world so I could make my personal interests primary in my life. I expect the same in a mate.
A woman more interested in working 2800 hours a year and jumping 10 feet in the air when a partner at her firm calls her to his or her office, and bringing home the big bucks, just isn't for me.