The Influence of a Woman’s Economic Capacity on Entering Marriage

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-541-6_105How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Women’s Economic Capacity; Marriage Entry; Gender Roles; Institutional Frameworks; Cultural Norms

Abstract

Against the backdrop of declining marriage rates across most countries, this paper examines how improvements in women’s economic status shape marriage entry patterns from temporal, spatial, institutional, and cultural perspectives. Over time, economic independence has redefined marriage from a survival necessity to an emotional choice, as women gain the autonomy to prioritize personal fulfillment over material security. Spatially, urban women with greater economic opportunities exhibit reduced reliance on marriage, while rural women in resource-constrained areas often still view it as a survival strategy—though this divide is gradually narrowing. Institutionally, supportive policies in nations like Switzerland have fostered marriage equality, whereas rigid systems such as Italy’s “marriage penalties” deter women from marrying. Culturally, the traditional concept of women’s family roles is being replaced by values centered on emotions and gender equality. This article suggests improving the system, eliminating gender discrimination, promoting cultural innovation, narrowing spatial differences, helping women balance economy and marriage, and increasing the marriage rate.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Xinyue Li
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/02/26
TI  - The Influence of a Woman’s Economic Capacity on Entering Marriage
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 5th International Conference on Culture, Design and Social Development (CDSD 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 950
EP  - 957
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-541-6_105
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-541-6_105
ID  - Li2026
ER  -