Twenty-something women may have some new competition in the dating game: older women. Though the scenario has traditionally been scoffed at when men are the spring chickens, a recent survey conducted by the American Association of Retired Persons found that one-third of unmarried females in their 40s through 60s are dating men younger than themselves. The stereotype, of course, involves men pursuing younger women, which has been embodied by the midlife male leaving his wife for a nubile 25-year-old.

That may be changing, because today's woman often works out and looks great into middle and old age, while older men tend to let themselves go, says Pepper Schwartz, a professor of sociology at the University of Washington. Older women are also more likely to have money and status that they didn't have a generation ago, and this power appeals to younger men. They're interested in someone who has the patina of success, who is self-sufficient; that's sexy to them says Schwartz.