Singlehood

The rising phenomenon among women in North and South East Asia. The thinking frame has shifted, it was the question of "when to marry" but now is "whether to marry or not" (Jones, 2004?). The West has experienced it earlier, it was the golden age of marriage in the 50s and 60s but now NE and SEA are taking similar path. The "rush into marriage" phenomenon does only happen to males once they reach their ages, but not so for females (p. 14).

Who is considered a 'single'? According to Byrne (2000), 'singles' encompasses both "the never marrieds" and "the ever marrieds". Do these include the 'yet-to-get-marrieds' as well?

This phenomenon is explained by two theories: Becker's "opportunity cost" and Easterlin's theory of income deprivation. The women view that they are going to lose career advancement opportunity if they get married early. For the former, marriage is delayed because of financial stability, normal among less favoured socio-economic group (p. 15).

Jones observes five key trends of marriage in SEA: (1) delayed and non-marriage; (2) cohabitation; (3) persistence of universal marriage in China; (4) persistence of very early marriage in indonesia; and (5) the rising divorce rate. The 'term 'universal marriage' strikes me as I have not come across this before. Jones offers two reasons why failed to marry at all: (1) lost faith in marriage, giving priority to career and independence; and (2)women still want marriage but wait for suitable partner (p. 15, 16). Quah (cited in Jones) believes that it is due to difficulties in finding partner rather than rejection of marriage institution. Partriachal attitude makes men nervous to marry women of higher Soc and ed status, women not to marry down (p. 20).

Knox and Schacht (2004) highlight three main issues experienced by singles: (1) loneliness; (2) less money; and (3) identity. There have been signs of negotiated form of identity-formation among Malay Muslim women. For those who reject marriage institution, the 'ideological foundation' is very much imbued by the Free Love movement which stipulate marriage is akin to "social bondage of women".

It is interesting to note that Article 16 of Universal Declaration of Human Right stipulates women's right to marriage. However it is a non-issue as the emerging concern has been more on women's choice whether to marry or not to marry regardless of intents and reasons.

Books for further reference:

(Un)tying the Knot By Gavin W. Jones, Kamalini Ramdas, National University of Singapore Asia Research Institu. Published by NUS Press

Knox D and Schaht, C, 2004. Choices in RS. Published by Thomson Wadsworth