The number of “leftover women” in China has become a social phenomenon. When a woman becomes economically independent, she becomes less dependent on men and, of course, more demanding of them. Where do China’s leftover women go from here?
“The so-called ‘leftover women’ are professional women who are over 27 years old and have high education or high income. ” To Xianzhi, from the University of Hong Kong, said. “The outside world criticizes them, saying they are left because the conditions for choosing a spouse are too high, but my research found otherwise.”
“For example, some women are discriminated against because they are very well-off; some women are asked by their partners to choose between ‘career’ and ‘marriage’; and some women are blamed for working too many hours or for their ‘over’ consuming lifestyles.”
Du surveyed 50 single professional women about the situation they face and found that more of the reasons leftover women are left behind come more from their partners’ or suitors’ machismo and traditional ideas of male dominance that keep them from reaching their marriage The reason is that they cannot achieve their marriage goals. Du Xianzhi defines these as gender restrictions in mate selection and divides them into two categories: discriminatory and controlling.
Du’s research found that different types of women adopted different strategies to deal with these gender constraints:
1. 1. Aggressive
They often face rejection by Chinese men because of their accomplishments, and they may choose what they perceive to be more enlightened Western men, but this also raises objections from their parents. They may choose what they perceive to be more enlightened Western men, but this may also cause opposition from their parents. Progressive women may also choose men who are financially better off than they are. Another possibility is that they hide their accomplishments when they are dating to avoid being rejected by men in the first place.
2. Compromising
Compromising women have traditional economic less strong values and want to find men with more egalitarian attitudes.
This type of woman turns the tables by choosing men of lower economic status when faced with male dominance. These men, because they can do without the burden of providing for the family, cannot expect women to conform to traditional gender role arrangements and thus will not interfere with women’s life patterns, and will even share more of the household work.
3. Breakthrough
Breakthrough women will choose to be married through relationships outside of marriage, such as living together instead of marrying, or by meeting like-minded people, or just being single to cope with these gender restrictions. But while this approach allows them to escape traditional family roles, it can also come at the cost of incurring parental disapproval.
Breakthrough women may represent a trend among Chinese women to support new types of couples, but most still see traditional marriage as their marriage goal and are determined to escape their leftover status.
4. Traditional
Traditional women aim to get married and find a man who has good financial resources and will be the breadwinner of the family. But because these women lack a proactive strategy for choosing a partner while following traditional requirements, they are most likely to be the “fighting leftovers” – the highest level of leftover women.
The study, while explaining how Chinese women are preparing for gender constraints and social expectations, also shows that most women are not averse to marriage as a traditional form of companionship. “This study suggests that it is more traditional expectations than personal choices that prevent women from entering marriage.” Dr. Du concluded. This study provides a diverse and comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of leftover women in China, and also offers strategies to address singleness for talented single women in male-dominated societies outside of China.