Traditional Chinese culture asserts that men and women should be married when they reach adulthood, reflecting the norm of Chinese society regarding the first marriage age. Oppenheirmer (1988) proposed that women should actively develop their human capital to gain advantages in spouse selection before marriage. However, the time required for human capital accumulation and spouse selection delays women’s marriage time. Recent studies have also indicated that the prevalence of conventional marriage practice in which the husband must be older and more financialy capable than the wife has gradually dwindled. Nevertheless, this practice is still widely acknowledged by the public, and whether it undermines the marriage opportunity of spinsters merits further exploration.
The study results indicated that the public has demonstrated a more open attitude toward the marriage age of women as time passes; however, the mainstream practice still prefers the husband to be older and more financially capable than the wife. An increasing number of status-reversal marriages have occurred in which the wife is older and more financially capable than the husband; this trend is mainly caused by the open attitude held by the younger generation toward marriage. In addition, the traditional value in which a marriage must occur between families of equal social rank is no longer valid among the younger generation, many of whom have received higher education; they now adopt a marriage value toward individualism and perceive traditional family roles to be less essential.
Because women nowadays can attain higher education levels and economic status, their consideration and decision regarding marriage have changed, and their expectation of gender equality in marriage has increased. Spinsters can utilize their human capital to pursue adequate partners in the marriage market. After such women are married, their financial ability also enables them to contribute to the family and increase family members’ quality of life, thereby improving their marriage quality. Nevertheless, the compatibility of two people entering marriage should be unrelated to their age difference, education levels, or incomes; instead, they should endeavor toward identifying the most suitable approach to live comfortably together. In current society, spinsters are no longer leftovers; they are winners in the current marriage market that emphasizes gender equality.
