"Do women desire marriage more than men?" This is a good question. I would say yes, overall. In the case of heterosexuals, women seem wired to seek commitment from a man who will help support and raise her kids. This instinct is obvious in the fact that women are more concerned about their mate's status/income than men are. That whole, "oooOOOOoo...he's a doctor" or "look at the RING he bought me" and so on. I'm not sayin' she's a gold-digger... but generally women have more to gain from a marriage than a man does, especially considering divorce rates. If there are no prenups involved, women are usually the ones who profit from alimony.
A lot of this might also depend on the age of the people in question. I think that women begin thinking (dreaming?) about their wedding day at a much younger age than men. And they tend to start really considering marriage in their early to mid twenties. Once their youthful beauty starts to disappear, women fear being left on the shelf and dying as old maids, so they start bringing up the subject of marriage to their boyfriends. If that doesn't work, and they break-up, then these ladies start dating more guys with that marriage possibility in the back of their mind. By the time they hit their thirties, the pressure really sets in on all those single chicks, and they start wearing more make-up to hide the lines, and compromising more in the dating scene. At this point, they also might seriously consider using dating websites or personals since guys no longer approach them in person as they are too busy chasing the younger, hotter 18-26 year olds.
Meanwhile, the guys fend off marriage for as long as possible. Some think they can do better than the girl they're with. They might dream about hooking a Playmate or model trophy wife, or see themselves making tons of money and living like a rock star with an endless line of model-hot vixens trying to break down their door. Some guys might just enjoy the bachelor scene (and sex with a variety of singles) so much that marriage doesn't seem necessary. I've noticed this wears off when the guy gets into his late thirties, realizes he's not cool as he once might have been, and/or he never became rich or a movie star like he wanted. Reality sets in, and he starts to consider marriage to an average woman (or below average, depending on his own value in the social market) as acceptable because he doesn't want to be alone either.
Exceptions to these rules seem to be religious types who see a service to god or whatever in their union, like "we may not be right for each other, but we can make it work", OR they don't allow themselves to have sex UNTIL marriage, so they marry younger. This can apply to males or females. Another execption includes guys with low self-esteem who want to marry the first chick who shows interest in him or says she loves him, maybe his first sexual experience. I've seen this happen a lot.
But overall, marriage is female driven. Definitely.
