When women are gauging your suitability as a potential mate, they don't just look at the line of your jaw or the cut of your shirt. Subconsciously, they're looking at everything you bring to the table, including the skills that - obviously or otherwise - set you apart as the sort of man they want around.
Here are the man skills you might already have - or could certainly acquire - that make women swoon:
Dancing
It's been well documented that both sexes like a partner that can dance, because a good dancer - with his sense of timing and obvious physicality - is showing off good, healthy genes.
But according to a study published last year, it's a bit subtler than that. It's not just moving on the dance floor that will impress her, it's what you move and how much. The psychologists from Northumbria University found that what men do with their hands and legs when they dance is less important to women than how they move their torso, head and neck.
Variability mattered too. The women liked men who twisted, bent, nodded and made sweeping movements, and were turned off - perhaps unsurprisingly - by twitchy, repetitive dad dancing.
In other words, the women liked movements that seemed to come from healthy, physical men. Like courtship rituals in the animal kingdom, dancing is a way for women to assess your potential as a sire of healthy children. Good dancers will pass on good genes (while wearing out good jeans).
Cooking
Jamie Oliver is among the most successful British celebrity chefs
Quite simply, being a decent cook gives you an excuse to ask her round to your place, even if it's just to sample your lasagne. Anecdotal evidence suggests that women love to be cooked for, and according to research by food company PurAsia, 48% of those surveyed found cooking skills made a person more attractive.
Oh, and 23% of men (aged 18-34) confessed to cooking as a means to potentially seduce a partner.
Conversation and a sense of humour
When researchers at Liverpool University asked women to read lonely hearts advertisements and say which bits attracted them most, social skills came second in the list, above attractiveness, sexiness and resources. That adds to anecdotal evidence that women like men who talk well and make them laugh.
A good sense of humour may well have helped comedian Russell Brand land Katy Perry. But why would evolution value such apparently useless skills? After all, you can't talk a woolly mammoth into the cooking pot, and telling a good joke won't stop a sabre-toothed tiger eating the kids.
Actually, the researchers speculated that good conversation skills make you more likely to stick around and help bring up children. Quite simply, social skills are a sign that you're after more than a quick bunk-up, and can be impressed by factors other than sex and food.
A sense of humour is also considered a sign of intelligence, and clever men are more likely to be able to provide for women and children. University of New Mexico scientists found self-deprecating humour was the most attractive because it was subconsciously interpreted as a sign of both intelligence and honesty.
DIY skills
Women apparently appreciate a man with solid DIY skills
From fixing the car to grouting the bathroom, it's pretty obvious how these man skills could attract women. It could be a nest-building thing, but leaving evolutionary biology aside for a second it could also be that women are attracted to a man who can save them cash.
But attracted to him they are, if a study last year by Duracell can be believed. It found that women would rather live with a tradesman than a lawyer, banker or civil servant, despite the gap in potential earnings. Even more worryingly for us attached pen-pushers, 34% of respondents said they were more likely to stray with a man who knew his way round B&Q.
Sport
David Beckham's commitment to a team sport like football is attractive to women
You might think she's impressed with your keepy-uppy skills or your fine eye for the killer pass, but she's actually sizing up your potential as a good parent.
Yep, to her, your commitment to a team is a sign that you're in things for the long haul, through thick and thin. And according to a study from Laurentian University in Canada, playing team sports also says you're a good communicator and able to sacrifice your own selfish needs for the good of others.
So when you're smashing a 30-yarder into the top corner, her subconscious is thinking: "Great, he'll help with the nappy changing."
Speaking in tongues
By which we mean, speaking in foreign tongues. Speaking a foreign language shows confidence and means you'll get the good stuff in your favourite restaurant, but it's also a clue to education. If you're well educated you're more likely to have higher status and a better job, and with that more money and better resources.
Being able to speak a foreign language is a sign of being well educated, something many women are drawn to.
But after 40 years of feminism are women really attracted to a man because he's got a well-paid job? You betcha! A report released in January by the Centre for Policy Studies found that in 1949, 20% of women in Britain married husbands with significantly higher levels of education than their own.
By the late 1990s, the proportion of women 'marrying up' had almost doubled to 38%. In other words, she's after a high status individual, and your confidence with a foreign language hints that high status is what you are.
In a nutshell, your man skills can help you get - and keep - the girl. And it's not men telling the girl that, it's her own survival and parenting instincts, honed by thousands of years of evolution. Which makes it a very persuasive argument indeed.
