An Investigation Of The Chinese "Leftover" Women’s Attitudes Towards Marriage

The rise of Chinese women’s modern approach to marriage is causing big shifts.Since the early 2000 s,there has been a clear focus of media attention on highly educated,urban professional women who have found themselves unmarried at a historically unheard-of age.As a result,this group of women has been titled the "leftover women" or "sheng nü".This title has been used to elicit emotions of commiseration and disdain toward women of this group.Therefore,women who took part in various studies have expressed becoming worried about the possibilities of what not being married may do for their lives and their families.Through an in-depth quantitative questionnaire with more than 250 well-educated,unmarried women who live in urban regions of China,this thesis explores the current understanding of the new ways these women are thinking about marriage and life in general,with the hope of finding some deeper understanding.Through exploring Chinese women’s experiences of being single in their late twenties and thirties with a data-driven approach,this research shines the light on the socioeconomic factors and predictors of women in this demographic.As a result,this will be a base for new areas of study by asking the right questions.Much previous work makes assumptions about causality between higher education and Chinese women.This thesis introduces new factors into the conversation,namely various aspects of women’s family background.It also aims to examine how women feel themselves being viewed by society as leftover women and how they view the dynamics of a married relationship in a post-modern China embedded in patriarchal traditions.Therefore,the findings of this study seek to first understand and assess predictable factors of women living being unmarried in the current rapidly changing value-based society.It is evident that women’s liberation in China still has a fair way to go.Women’s identities and choices challenge and transform their relationships with their families and society at large and redefine what it means to be a woman in China.