One day I was talking to my friend, a psychologist, about the gap between men and women in relationships. He told me an interesting story.

One of his friends had lent him a book called "What Women Want?". It was a thick book. He was very interested, because many of his male clients complained that they never understood women. He took the book and turned the page. Apart from the first page with the title, the rest inside were blank.

We were both laughing at his story. Regardless if this was real or just a joke, obviously the story shows men do not understand women.

Men would like to look after the women they love. It satisfies their ego. However, quite often because of not understanding the nature of women, or without knowing what they expect from them, men go in opposite directions often upsetting their women without knowing why.

"Men are from Mars, women are from Venus." Coming from different planets, men and women can be totally different in thinking and expectations. These differences create misunderstandings and become one of the most common obstacles, or challenges, to relationships or marriages.

While talking to my friend, I suddenly had a passion for writing some articles about women. As a woman myself, with years of experience in dealing with people's emotions, I have observed certain aspects and characteristics about women and their expectations in relationships. This experience may not apply to every woman on every occasion. However it may help men to understand us a little bit more.

Women are driven by emotion

By nature, women are much more emotional than men. This is demonstrated in a woman's selection of her future partner. When asking a woman to describe the kind of man she is looking for, she can tell many details about the man in her mind, including his physical height, level of education, kind of job, amount of income, assets, etc. She seems sensible and logical. However, when the relationship progresses she quickly involves her emotion. Her original criteria could disappear completely. All she knows is that she is in love with this man. That is why many women eventually marry a man totally different from what they were seeking at the beginning.

When a woman is in love or thinks she is in love, she is so focused. Nothing else in the world matters. If there is a conflict between love and work, career, interests, or even her own family, she would choose love. For love she can give up everything.

Because of this nature, women always wear 'emotion-tinted' glasses. When a woman is in a relationship, she will naturally judge her partner's words, or actions, by emotion.

When a man shows his passion for a woman by ringing her many times a day, sending her beautiful flowers, praising her for what she is and what she wears, the woman accepts those actions and words as a man's emotional involvement. She might even think the man is in love with her.

Sometimes she will have little doubt that the man simply wants to have sex with her, thus taking advantage of her. Nevertheless she might still prefer to believe that the man likes her emotionally, which excites her, even stimulating her sex drive.

Even when a woman pushes for commitment from her boyfriend, it does not always mean that she is desperate for it. This could be just a test by her to learn how much emotion he has for her.

A lot of men know that women are more emotional. But they may not know how essential and important emotion is for women. Quite often they are insensitive in responding to their partner's questions, statements and actions, which emotionally upsets the partner.