Good relationships are built on mutual respect, and respect is not something anyone automatically gets. You can’t force a man to respect you. His respect is something you earn, just like love is earned.

A man will never truly love a woman he doesn’t respect. Now, this doesn’t mean he won’t date her, or even sleep with her, but is he going to fall deeply and madly in love with her? No way! Love and respect go hand in hand, and making a man respect you is one of the challenges you’ll face in gaining his love and trust.

Love yourself. It may be cliché, but it’s true. No man can love and respect you, if you don’t even have those feelings for yourself. You must have pride in yourself, a sense of real self-worth, and an appreciation for your loveable and respectable qualities. If you don’t, he won’t either.

Know who you are. Be a whole person, with thoughts and feelings, memories and a future, plans and activities all of your own. It’s fine to compromise in a relationship. In fact, it’s necessary at times in order for a relationship to succeed, but losing yourself in someone else is not healthy or respectable. You have to be an individual in order to earn respect.

Have your own thoughts. Agreeing with someone is one thing, provided you actually do agree with them. However, pretending to agree just because you think it will make them happy is another thing altogether. It’s ok to disagree on topics, and to have your own opinions and thoughts. Failing to ever show you’re a rational, thinking person is a sure way to lose a man’s respect.

Don’t suppress yourself. Be who you are, and don’t try to pretend to be something you think a man will find more attractive. Pretending might work for awhile, when you’re first getting to know someone new, especially if you’re a pretty good actress, but eventually, the real you is bound to show through. A man can’t respect you if he doesn’t really know you, and upon finding out you’ve been pretending all along he has no choice but to lose respect for you.

Don’t go overboard. You’ll want to be attractive and appealing to a man, but you shouldn’t take it too far. He may tell you some of the things he finds attractive, like well manicured nails, women in sundresses, or intellectual looking women, with glasses and tightly tied hair. That doesn’t mean you should try to conform to all of those styles. He obviously finds you attractive, or he wouldn’t be dating you.

Don’t think you have to be perfect. Being perfect isn’t attractive or respectable in a real woman, because it’s an unachievable and fake state of being. A man may find the perfect standards of beauty depicted in the swim suit edition of magazines attractive or sexually appealing from a visual standpoint, but no real woman is perfect. Be real. Take pride in your appearance, as that shows you have respect in yourself, but don’t try to achieve some silly standard of perfection.

Enjoy your life. Being happy, even when you aren’t with him, promotes real happiness for you. Build a life for yourself, with your own plans, dreams, friends, and interests. Happiness in your own life makes you a whole person, with a more attractive overall personality and appearance. A happy, secure, and well-rounded woman is respectable. One who can’t be happy unless she’s with a man isn’t.