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Marriage The Institution

Women around the world are asking,” Hey what’s in it for us?”

Aug 22, 2011 by Jane Genova

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Perhaps we single girlfriends here in the U.S. should start a national Single Pride Day. There is now concrete evidence showing that we took the road which savvy educated women around the world are increasingly traveling. How that is playing out in Asian societies is the cover story in the April 20^th issue of THE ECONOMIST.

Sure most of us know that for women in European nations, marriage has been a declining institution. For example, in Sweden, 55% of births are to unmarried women. In Iceland, the number is 66%, reports THE ECONOMIST. In the U.S. the institution isn’t doing too hot either. Now we find out that pockets are Asia are also experiencing the female disinterest in tying the knot.

Not for me, Asian women saying.

For example, as THE ECONOMIST notes:

“The share of unmarried women in their 30s in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong has risen 20 points or more [in the past 30 years].

“In South Korea, young men complain that women are on ‘marriage strike.’”

The factors underlying these developments are many. But at the top of the list are women’s access to higher education and their determination to take advantage of that. Thanks to education, they can support themselves. They can also analyze the pros and cons about the marriage state. According to how they’re calculating those, marriage doesn’t seem all that attractive. After all, in most Asian societies females still assume most of the responsibility for running the household and rearing the children.

Clearly, those of us who never married will soon enough have lots of company around the world. The marketer in me looks forward to All The Single Girlfriends linking with our sisters in Asia. We might have a meet-up in China. Recently I acquired a Chinese tourism company as a client. There are low-cost ways to see China. For example, we can bunk in a dorm at a school or with a Chinese family. A trip to China? Drop a comment if you’re interested and I’ll be glad to help.

About the Author

Jane Genova Has Written 24 Articles For Us!

I’m a coach, book author, and lecturer on careers, specializing in transitions. When I was 58, I restarted my professional life. That was in 2003. Since then I have I have muted into one of those renaissance folks who keeps multiple lines of work going. My latest book Over-50: How We Keep Working has helped thousands of people realize that exciting careers don’t depend on your age. I write four blogs: Jane Genova, Law and More, Career Transitions, Over-50.

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