Why Men Compete For Women

Why do men compete for women? The simple, proximate and mundane answer to this question is because men are trying to get sexual access to women. A more profound explanation however, is provided by a theory called Parental Investment (PI). PI theory states that the sex that invests most in offspring will be the choosier sex when it comes to selecting a sexual partner. In most animals, females contribute substantially more to their offspring than males and therefore females in general get to be choosier when selecting a mate. As a result, males are left to compete with each other to gain sexual access to reproductively viable females.