All right, so I titled this thing in a semiprovocative way. I didn't really know what to call it, so this title's as good as any.
The reason a man feels a need to be "superior" to a woman he is loving is because he wishes to make a gift of it to her. The woman does not understand this, because all she wants (unconsciously, if not consciously) is to be loved -- and accepted, and cared for. The successful woman delights in the man who is not "intimidated" by her [financial, intellectual, and/or physical] superiority: the man who cares for her with nary a care for that situation. Ironically enough (and rather unfortunately), his "need" to be superior springs from his care; if she already has more [money, knowledge, strength or skill] than he has, how can he aid her? How can he show her he cares? For what I assume to be the typical woman, simple acts like hugs, kisses, "I love you"s, phone calls, notes, and all the "romantic" gestures most men think are trivial are significant -- and sufficient. But even for a man "in touch with his feelings", it is in the masculine nature to be externally demonstrative, through material gifts, or sound advice, or labor- or, preferably, all three. It seems reasonable to assume, then, that a man comfortable with his companion's apparent superiority is either superior in some less visible (to others) but more important (to him) way, or truly adapted to and comfortable with expressing his love in a "trivial" way, or else he does not actually love her in the truest sense -- but knows how to act in such a way ("romantically") that convinces her that he does.