I kind of wonder, do men really have a harder time understanding women, or do they just blame typical human conflicts, which they could also have with other men, on the woman's female-ness?
Maybe with a dash of expectation of conflict based on gender.
But really, there's not a lot to get. Men and women are both ruled by instincts, social mores, and expectations. I see them as animals, observed their drives, and now I find them both pretty predictable.
From what I can tell, however, one of the most touched-upon tropes is that men want to have as much sex with as many women as they can, and women want to try to avoid being a throw-away screw. So female 'head games' are really an attempt to find out if a man is planning to boink-and-run, which means he'd be a waste of her time, or if he's actually potential long-term material.
And I think that's true. Just from what I've experienced and observed, women (in western culture) are indoctrinated with the idea that most men just want to sleep with them and then move on, and that they'll lie and manipulate to achieve that goal. And because of that, a lot of young females are either afraid to trust male peers, or they adopt that same casual promiscuity as an emotional self-defense.