The ultimate basis of many of contemporary women's difficulties in romantic attachments is the purported "man shortage."  We need to re-examine if this is real, or merely perceived—or perhaps somewhere in between the two.

Some related personal experiences:

A professional woman friend of mine once told me of her frustration with a dating/introduction service through which she met a man who described himself as successful and economically secure, based on owning his own home and certain other characteristics.  When she met him, he had turned out to be a carpenter.  What, she wanted to know, could a carpenter have possibly had to offer her, an executive?  Her voice fairly dripped with scorn at this prospect.

Another professional woman friend told me of a more positive experience with a dating service, based on the "quality" of the men she had met.  As she went on to elaborate via examples of the occupations of her various dates, by "quality" she meant simply occupational and economic status.  (This second woman, by the way, would have considered it in extremely poor taste for a man to use the term "quality" to describe the appearance of the women in the same selection pool.  She just didn’t happen to see anything untoward in using the term to describe income.)

Was either of these women unusually crass or shallow in her reactions?  I personally wouldn't find much fault with them.  I think it's not only a common reaction, but an entirely normal one.  

In the vast majority of cases, women want a man of socioeconomic status higher than their own.  While they may tolerate a man of equal status, lower status is almost never acceptable.

Studies have shown that these preferences are more than just a matter of rationally calculating what sort of combined income would be needed to support a comfortable household.  The highest-income women, who don’t objectively need another high income to achieve an acceptable lifestyle, almost never consider low- or moderate-income men appropriate mates.  To the contrary, they tend to be far more demanding than other women are in their standards for a prospective mate's economic status.

There's no doubt a biological reason for women to be attracted on an emotional level to socially dominant or "alpha" males.  In nature, it would mean a mate who was better able to provide for offspring.  But in today's environment, historically natural female attraction to high-status males produces an arithmetic that often works to women's detriment.

When women reach a certain economic status, they restrict the set of men who are acceptable to them.  When men reach high status, we expand the set of who's available to us.  And men being men, we're as likely to choose a great beauty as a woman who is highly accomplished.   We're also inclined to "sample all the merchandise," so to speak, without making the commitment to actually "buy" anything.