Women are attracted to three main categories of attributes:

1) Physical appearance. Which harks back to something you correctly pointed out, our primordial origins were such that she needed a man to hunt and protect the brood. Thus the affinity for big, beefy, dimwitted buffoons.

2) Power, status, and $. Much for the same reasons as #1, but adapted to modern society. Usually it is the brighter, more mature women who pick up on this, but the appeal of the guy with coin is universal.

3) Sociopaths. The more notorious, the better. Think serial killers and other similar scum like Charles Manson, who had his own harem of women. The appeal of these jokers is as inexplicable as it is undeniable.