From what I've read (and occasionally experienced), it seems most women crave intimacy. Intimacy appears to be just the appetizer leading up to a complete session of love, sex and everything else with a woman. For women, it seems, intimacy plays a major role in leading up to sex, which may not play such a major role.
For men, however, intimacy is hard. On the one hand, it is just plain hard for men to be intimate. On the other hand, men prefer to cut to the chase--sex. No need to be intimate.
So, how do you merge these two mindsets? Do women ignore their need for intimacy and go straight to sex to please men? Do men go through the motions of intimacy in order to get sex? Or, do both men and women refuse to compromise in order to get what they need/want?
Feel free to jump in with your observations of the general differences between men and women. Not only when it comes to intimacy and sex, but other things as well.