Women also pay attention to the quality of life when they get old

Women in their 70s place a higher priority on their partner's sexual attractiveness than they did in their 40s, a new study finds. The study said that women tend to place less importance on sexual attractiveness when they reach middle age, but they tend to place more importance on it after retirement.

The research, by parenting website Netmums and Saga magazine, surveyed 9,000 women aged 16 to 75 to find out what they were looking for in a long-term partner.

Research has found that today's young women want to find a tall, handsome, ambitious and wealthy man. Older women, on the other hand, place more emphasis on kindness, reliability, and the ability of the two to get along well when looking for an ideal partner.

Emma Soames, contributing editor at Saga magazine, said: "These findings offer some very interesting insights into real-life relationships across generations.

"It's comforting to see women over 50 rekindling their desire for sexual attraction, which shows that the things that brought them together in the first place are still cherished by them now.

“But surprisingly, they don’t value honesty as much as younger women do.

"Perhaps after many years together, they find that realism and pragmatism are more important than honesty in maintaining a relationship. Also, at this age, infidelity decreases, so suspicion of deception also decreases."

The quality young women most want in a man is honesty.

However, honesty is not the best strategy with older women. Nearly half of the older women surveyed were annoyed that their men always told the truth and would rather hear some nice words that would please their ears.

For nearly half of the young women surveyed, romance is still very much in demand - at least they all look forward to it.

Nearly half (49%) of women admitted that what they look forward to most is finding someone has prepared delicious food and wine for them.

Ambition is the second most important quality in women. 21% of women said they want a man with lofty ideals.

Michael Bublé and George Clooney are popular men among the older generation of women, but when it comes to finding a life partner, older women don't care whether a man's face is handsome or not. In contrast, younger women were three times more likely than older women to place an emphasis on physical attractiveness in their partners.