Hi, can someone who knows their stuff in biology help me understand the following.

I always believed that the average woman prefers confidence and height in their partner because they selected that way in the past, because such a mate would in theory be able to protect you better. But then I was told that women never really selected in the past, because when we are apes and even after that, the strongest male would just impregnate the women no matter what they thought about that. So from a biological point of view did women EVOLVE to find certain traits attractive (if so... how? if they couldn't resist the strongest man anyway) or is it just cultural.