So, many women like older men. No surprise that genetics has a roll in this, as women in the early days died in child birth, giving men a longer life span, requiring women to start making babies as soon as they had their first period, in their early teenage or pre-teen years, meaning that they'd be dead before twenty according to law of probability (survive seven births? good luck) while men lived well into their thirties. Centuries of this, millenia if you include monkey men, led to some what of a genetic preference I'm sure. While it may be cultural, it might be that the women that were willing to sleep with older men had more babies, and that willingness (or lack of disgust) became a genetic trait most all women have. It could also be social, in the same way that liking bigger breasts is social (even if to me it's totally natural). Regardless of where it came from, its here, and I'm not a history professor (as of writing this essay anyway).
Some women like older men, be it in high school where they want to date a college guy, or be it in their college years, where they want to date 40 year olds. The occasional dates above that, which we shall get into at the bottom of the essay in the necrophilia section. First and foremost, high school jail bait. On the surface its simple, even if the girl thinks its complex. College guys tend to, but not always, have these traits, car, money, free time, facial hair (or the ability to grow a full beard), broader knowledge base, their own place, ready access to beer and drugs, job, and experiance. Now, a girl is attracted to things such as a man financhial independance, his own transportation, access to mind altering substances, and a guy with his own place. Even if he was in high school, this guy would be considered awesome because he can drive you around, don't have to worry about his parents, and more. Basically, what the girl wants is a guy with which she can pretend she's an adult with. Girls want to be older than they are in high school, because they feel on the inside they are more mature than adults consider them to be. While adults tend to forget the sex drive, they do not under estimate the judgement skills of the teenager. Far from it, they know that teenagers are idiots. By attempting to live a false life through a more mature man girls prove how immature they really are. They should enjoy the stage of life they are in, as should the gun strapping males of the species, and not try to skip a phase. In the race to grow up, we forget how much freedom one has with dependance on parents or grandparents or other legal guardian. You don't have to work, sure you have to go to school, but that's nothing like a real job, and you always have the weekends off, you get along with your co workers, and you get a real lunch break. Even some physical activity. Why move on?
Well, the girl would say that it's not for her. Disregarding what happens to people without a proper education, and also how you come across (ignorant and flaky), let's just talk about dating the older man. Sure, some high schoolers have a part time job, and in junior or senior year a car, occasional access to beer, maybe even ready access to drugs, but they dont have their own place. Nowadays, you see more and more "urban" youths (urban is the nice way of saying black) in high schools that don't function able to live the life of a drug lord or pimp, meeting the requirements of a "mature" girl (here mature means demanding). Girls in high school not only date these guys, but they form the guy's stable of hoes, whether they know it or not. It's pathetic really. The guys do it because they feel it necessary to impress the girls, and the girls are impressed by those factors I stated earlier because to them its the mature man their looking for. What women don't realize is that men stop maturing from about the age of fourteen.
Oh sure, we learn more, but in truth a twenty something can hang out with forty and fifty somethings without issue. Why? Because its the same humour, its the same stories, its the same conversations. Men don't grow up, they learn a bit more and they earn a bit more. Any woman who says she needs a mature man is fooling herself unless she's eight, because men are the same the world round. We talk about broads, current events, and anecdotes. Its that simple. Sure, the younger guys are going to be a part of some trend that the older folk don't understand, and the older guys might have stories about their kids or life partners that the young kids can't share in, but the truth is all men can relate. The older guys will remember the fads of their youth, and the younger guys will relate to the stories in how they were raised or how they want to be parents.
I covered why a girl would date a college guy over a high school guy, and how high school guys have adapted in the urban centers to this demand. Now what about a girl dating a forty year old when she's not even twenty. While most all men's taste in women matures as they age themselves, the cheerleader body is all we need to be physically attracted to someone. While some guys will say that they can't stand the attitude of young and immature women, others will feel their pants (or kilts) grow tight (or flop around in the kilt, which i guess can't really grow tight). Even if a forty year old wont date a twenty year old on principal, somoe will. A woman who wants to date a man of that big of an age difference, be it twenty - forty or thirty - fifty, is no different than the high school girl. Only she wants more than financhial independance, she wants the financhial life style that takes most men that long of a time to gain. While guys her age have cars, they might be beat up neons or new taurus', but they aren't porsches or mercedes. Sure the young guy has an apartment, that he shares with a struggling actor. The old guy has a house, or a loft. The young guy can buy the girl dinner and a movie. The old guy can take the girl to Sardies (or price equivilant) every weekend, not just on her birthday. While a guy in college might know more than a guy in high school, the old guy doesn't really know much more than the young guy in the way of book learning. (unless he's a professor or other professional, but atleast in the case of the professor the girl will be attracted to him for different reasons than other jobs. Being attracted to the professor is like being attracted to the President or a famous writer, its a person of power and authority, and even if that man can hang out with normal guys without losing a step, the woman will think he is above his age peers) Obviously scaling is involved, a rich girl will want an older man with two houses, or a really rich girl will like a guy with his own private jet. The point is, she'll want things the average guy has to work till middle age to aquire. Once again, she is trying to skip a life step, go from the small and meek struggling to the comfortable, established, and settled.
All these women are doing is trying to do is live vicariously through their mate. If they are dating a financhially independant man, they become financhially independant. If they date an established man, they are established. Men simply try and aquire these things that women want. True, they do it for themselves as well, but the kind of woman that looks for a mature man also drives many men. After all, all men want is to be loved (by which i mean have someone they can have sex with on a regular basis without money exchanging hands).

Now, women that date men extremely older than themselves, forty or more years, do so not trying to skip a life step, but because they are attracted to what that man represents. He is not a person, but an icon. Wealth, fame, talent, these are the basic things. The man might be a famous and acclaimed writer or artist (by famous and acclaimed I mean rich). The guy might be a well known celebrity (rich), or the owner or a large corporation (rich), or a man with vast holdings, such as owning houses across the globe, private jet, yacht, and priceless art work and exquisite taste (rich). In any of these cases, the woman isn't attracted to the man, but that doesn't necessarily mean she is only attracted to his money. She could just be attracted to what having all those things represents, power. A man of influence, of authority, like a professor, world renown writer, or ruler of a country, is attractive to a woman not because of who he is, but what he is. The woman isn't thinking, wow, I'm fucking Ralph Macchio, she's thinking, wow, I'm fucking the Karate Kid, parts 1, 2 and 3. Bad example, as washed up child actors dont represent power and influence, but they do hold a bit of sway in the nostalgia department. I really can't draw any modern parallels, as they will be out of date eventually, so I'll try and draw a future one. The hordes of women every night will not think, wow, I just fucked Max and three other girls, they'll think, wow, I was just a member in an orgy with the Emperor of Earth. Once it comes to pass, it will never grow out of date as when I become emperor, I will devote as much research as is possible into becoming immortal. Who want's to live forever? I'll answer your question with a question, what has two thumbs and likes blow jobs? (from women with long hair only)