Barney Stinson is a character that is a good looking man and works in a big company who sleeps with many women and even has a playbook that has different ways of tricking women into sleeping with him and is successful. Howard Wolowitz is a character that is average looking and nerdy who doesn’t sleep with many women, tries to come up with different ways to trick women into sleeping with him and fails.

Both characters are womanizers except one is successful and the other is a failure. The difference is how they are received by the audience and fans eg Barney is seen as a lovable asshole while Howard is seen as a creepy loser even though they both treat women horribly.

This shows that women and society will have more sympathy for a man who’s good looking, an asshole, treats women horrible and sleeps with them more than a man who’s nerdy, creepy, treats women horribly and fails with them.

TLDR: Women have sympathy for attractive asshole men but hate creepy loser men.