Is the woman's age important to a man? Based on the data analyzed here, clearly the answer is yes, it is. Is the man's age important to a woman? It might be, but it appears to be weak factor, at least when compared to the weight men assign to the age of their partner. While a 14 year age gap is the average for most women, as a man gets older he tends to seek out a relatively younger woman. Men under 35 seek women less than 10 years younger, men in their 40s and early 50s are looking for women 15 years younger, and as a man enters his late 50s this increases to 20 years, and the age difference continues to increase as the man gets still older.
This difference is explained by the variation in who each person selects as their partner. While the "average" woman is involved with a man 14 years older then herself, there is a lot of variation from one woman to the next for any given age, from no difference up to 30 or more years. In contrast the men of a given age tend to be fairly consistent in how old they want their partner to be.
I will not offer any speculation as to why this difference exists. Based on the data analyzed I can say only that in this sample, men and women as a whole view the age difference issue differently. Would it be interesting to explore why this difference exists, in particular in AM-RW relationships? Sure, but this would require gathering a fair amount of personal information that I think most couples involved in this pursuit would be reluctant to disclose. If there is enough interest (at least 50 or 60 couples who are or were living together for a time), drop me a note StatGuy@mochamail.com and I'll work with DrGary to see about devising a questionnaire.