“Respect should be the first thing you give.” – Anonymous
This anonymous quote struck the right chord with me, and I felt like sharing it with you.
It is so different from the reality of things in our world that I am sure the writer must have been writing about some sort of utopian society.
In our world, respect is earned, not given.
It is deserved and not a privilege.
The rule for earning respect is to show that you are worthy of it.
Even in romantic relationships, partners must still show themselves worthy of respect.
Love and respect should be the foundation of any healthy relationship.
However, they are nurtured by the actions of both partners.
As a female, you may be wondering about those things you can do to make your man respect you.
We will be exploring a bunch of things you can do that will guarantee you your partner’s respect.
The good thing about it is that they are not even gender specific, so males can also learn from them.
Let’s go!
What Makes A Man Respect A Woman?- 7 Things That Makes A Man Value You
1. You keep your promises
I have already mentioned that trust and respect are the foundations of any healthy relationship.
It’s really hard to respect a woman who is not trustworthy.
If you think about all the females you know, you will realize that some of them are highly respected by everyone while others are not.
If you keenly examine the lives of those who are not respected, you will realize that one thing is missing: trustworthiness.
In relationships, trust is even more important, and when your husband cannot trust you, it begins to erode his respect for you.
One of the worst ways to lose your husband’s respect is to lose his trust by either betraying him or not living up to your words.
I remember when I was a kid, a certain aunt of mine would always promise me stuff without ever fulfilling them.
It got to a point that I didn’t even expect any fulfillment of her promises.
Her words ceased to have any form of impact on me because I had faced several disappointments from him.
It takes a lot of effort to keep your promises sometimes, but when you do it, it comes with the added benefit of gaining your husband’s trust and admiration.
2. You listen well
Being able to listen when your partner speaks is another way to guarantee his respect.
Society has stereotyped males as listeners and females as the talkers.
However, this is not so in reality.
Males also feel the need to express themselves.
They may sometimes need to rant or vent about a situation that is affecting them.
If you can listen attentively while he talks, it will go a long way in gaining his respect for you.
The fact is that most people don’t really know how to listen.
So when men meet people who have mastered this art, they just want to hold tight and never let go.
Don’t just be the person who rants or vents in the relationship.
Try to listen sometimes.
Let the roles change, and you will find that his respect for you will increase.
3. You respect yourself
Just like self-love, self-respect is very important in any relationship.
If you don’t respect yourself, how do you expect someone else to respect you?
A woman who respects herself and has a healthy sense of self-worth would command the respect of even the rudest man.
In your relationship, don’t act in a way that would invite disrespect.
Yeah, I know you love your husband so much, but it doesn’t mean that you should do degrading things because of that love.
I remember when I was a kid, it was a recurring theme in Nollywood movies to have a poor husband married to a beautiful wife.
At some point, her husband may either fall ill or lose his job, or some form of misfortune may befall him and leave him destitute.
This is where his beautiful wife comes in; because of her beauty, there is a particular rich man who wants an affair with her.
She goes to meet him to help her husband after exhausting all other options, but all he wants is sex with her to help her husband.
She agrees, and when her husband gets well and finds out, he hates her for life.
Very terrible plot, I know.
But the fact is that doing degrading things because you think you love a man won’t make him respect you.
If you want your man to respect you, you must first respect yourself.
This is the only way he can hold you in high regard.
How do you respect yourself?
You must start by first knowing your worth.
4. You are confident
Confidence looks good on anyone, but it looks even better on a woman.
Being confident matters a lot, especially in relationships.
You will realize that when you always behave in a self-assured manner, it would be very difficult for anyone to even think of disrespecting you.
You are amazing, and you must start thinking of yourself as amazing.
This is the best way to make a man respect you.
If you don’t already see yourself as someone amazing and deserving of respect, you will not be able to demand respect from your man.
5. Let your opinion be heard
I know I said you should listen attentively.
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have opinions about issues in your relationship.
Men love a woman who can share her opinions without being coerced into doing it.
Sometimes, your man is telling you things because he wants to know your views about them.
He trusts your judgment and wants to know what you think.
It will be extremely disappointing for him to share his ideas with you, and you don’t even have an opinion to share with him.
This is among the major reasons why so many men lose respect for their wives.
You are not a robot, and you can’t agree with everything he says, so you should always express yourself.
Whether it is in dissent or agreement, when you express your opinions to a man, it makes him respect you even more.
6. You are not clingy
Most men don’t like clingy women.
They like to have time for themselves or to even hang out with their male friends.
A woman who would command the respect of a man is a woman who realizes that he has a life outside of the relationship and encourages him to pursue it.
Don’t be overly dependent on him for your happiness or constantly seek his attention.
Allow him to have his own space, and he will appreciate you more for it.
You need to be your own person: have hobbies and activities that you are involved in.
Do something that gives you purpose.
You have an identity outside of your relationship.
Don’t limit yourself.
The weird thing is that many ladies believe that they are pleasing their man by being clingy and always at his beck and call.
My dear, you are not.
He may be liking it at first but it will get to a point that it will be so stifling that he will just want some air.
That is when the disrespect will start.
Don’t cling to a man.
Experience a full and fun-filled life on your own.
7. You can’t always be available
You can’t always be available for your man if you are living a full life as a respectable woman.
And this doesn’t mean that you should go out of your way to be unavailable to your man.
It just means that there may be times when you will be too busy to be at his beck and call.
I know that it may sound romantic for a man to call you at the last minute and tell you to prepare for a trip to Paris.
It is undeniably romantic, but the underlying message is that he feels like you really don’t have anything important that you are doing.
You shouldn’t cancel your plans all the time because he wants to do something at the last minute.
This will make him consider you a high-value woman because he will realize that you have other things that you do with your time.
Whenever you are busy, he will realize that he needs to plan things with you.
It’s a sign of respect when your man does this to you.
All these are the characteristics of high-value women in relationships.
Doing these doesn’t mean you are not agreeable in the relationship.
It only shows that you are also a force to be reckoned with in the relationship.
As I always say, marriage is not a union between a man and a robot.
It is a union between man and woman.
Everyone deserves respect until they prove otherwise.