Parental Influence on Marital Decision-Making in “Leftover Women” Families

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-509-6_54How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Leftover Women; Parents Support; Doing Gender; The Stigmatization of “Leftover Women”; Marriage Decision-Making

Abstract

This article discusses the phenomenon of “leftover women” in mainland China and the influence of parents on their marriage decision-making. The term “leftover women” has a pejorative connotation, which exacerbates the “stigmatization” and pressure on unmarried women by society. In Chinese families, the behavior of parents has an important impact on the marriage decision-making of the “leftover women”. By using the theoretical framework of “Doing Gender”, it analyzes how parents’ interaction in the three dimensions of emotional support, economic support and information support conveys and strengthens gender norms, thereby affecting the marriage choice of “leftover women”, and points out the role of the family in the construction of gender norms. It helps to reflect on the traditional gender concept, advocate a more equal and inclusive view of marriage, and build a harmonious family and social environment. At the same time, it emphasizes the significance of parents’ positive influence in providing positive family support for “leftover women” and calls on the society to correctly view the phenomenon of “leftover women” and reduce discrimination and pressure on unmarried women.

Copyright

© 2025 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  - Caoshuo Shen
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/15
TI  - Parental Influence on Marital Decision-Making in “Leftover Women” Families
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 International Conference on Mental Growth and Human Resilience (MGHR 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 496
EP  - 504
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-509-6_54
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-509-6_54
ID  - Shen2025
ER  -