Honestlt, I think men have it better than women in the world of dating.

Issue is that younger men in their 20s are immature. As a 25 year old woman myself I could never envision spending my life with any of the men I dated in my early 20s. When I'm on dating apps, a lot of the men in their 20s come across as immature or not knowing what they want. Like undecided on whetter they want kids, undecided about what they're looking for in a relationship etc. If I wanted to land a mature man in my early 20s I would have had to date 30+ but that's a large age gap. I figured it was better to wait until I got older to date more seriously rather than to date people with huge age gaps when we are in different stages of life or date a man my own age who is immature, and doesn't know what he wants. Nevermind the fact that I didn't know even know what I wanted from a relationship when I was younger, which I had to figure out over time. Trying to land a good guy when I didn't know what I wanted, and men my age were immature and also didn't know what they wanted was pretty much impossible.

It is an advantage for men to wait cause they know they'll get a mature woman who knows what she wants, not an immature woman who flip flops because she doesn't know what she wants from you. Who says women no longer wants to be fun when they're older. I'm 25 and dating a 32 year old man. I asked him why he likes me so much that he kept coming back even after I rejected him (for not prioritizing me in the past) and he said cause I'm so much fun. Granted I'm 25, not 35, but still. I'm going to be fun when I'm older too because I want to live a child-free and carefree life style. Granted, I admit most women want to settle down and live boring lives with children, but there are those of us who don't want that.

Regarding emotional baggage from past relationships, those are actually what has made me as a woman mature significantly. I learnt and grew a lot from my past failed relationships. I learned what works and what don't. I learned my own boundaries, and I learned to respect mens boundaries. All the hardships I faced when dating, including abuse, overall made me a wiser and more compassionate woman. I used to be a very entitled woman, but all the emotional baggage or trauma humbled and made me more understanding of the hardships other people face.

Regarding kids, there are older women who doesn't want or have kids. These are the women who decided on never having kids and who decided to be childfree while young, and there's women who wanted to focus on a career and a different lifestyle before settling down with children. These are women who are determined and know what they want from a young age.

The women who had children young may ditch their baby daddies like you said so why would you want to date these kind of women who don't know what they want, are immature or have accident babies anyway while they're young?

You don't have to be a step dad if you date career focused or/and childfree women. If you want children someday, then dating a career focused woman is an excellent option as she will not want to settle down with kids before her 30s, and if you don't want children, then dating women who are childfree is a great option, if you yourself don't want or have kids and a baby mama that is. No career focused or childfree woman want to deal with baby mama drama or someone else's kids either. Not to mention, career focused and childfree women are often far better off financially, due to not having to provide for a child and being able to focus on work, which essentially means you don't have to stress about providing a lot of money for her, or kids if you don't have kids, cause she will be able to take care of herself financially, which means you won't have to work your ass off.

I guess all in all what I'm saying is there's alternatives. Sure, there may not be an abundance of childfree women or childless career focused women, but they're out there. I'm one of them.