The Phenomenon Of Leftover Women Under High Sex Ratio Of China

In recent years. China’s sex ratio continues to rise, and becomes serious social concerns. Reporters often emphasize the pessimistic consequence of tens of millions unmarried single men in the coming decade in China, and naturally researchers also have begun to examine the possible influence of the elevated sex ratio. Meanwhile, the leftover single women attract much attention because of their favorable conditions and marginalized situation in the marriage market. Leftover women and high sex ratio seems contradictory, however, the high sex ratio which can lead to more men than women, just would not eliminate the phenomenon of leftover women mechanically. This work tries to understand the causes of leftover women under such high sex ratio environment. I wish to highlight the fundamental reason for these single women.The previous literature mostly interprets leftover woman from the perspectives of sociology, ethics and culture, and lack of empirical analysis of the causes of leftover women. In particular. I use various measures of individuals’ marriage value from CGSS2006. By comparing the marriage value differences across rural/urban and across gender, we hope to understand the choices made on the marriage market.Our results show, with the improvement of education and income levels, less urban women are following the traditional marriage and family values. However, such trend of shifting values due to income and cohort is found to be significant only among females, not among males. With the rapid development of China’s economy, women’s educational level and economic status have made great progress. Quickly enhanced socio-economic status results in women’s independent consciousness so that they do not agree with the traditional concept of marriage and family any more. Our results show females are increasingly tolerant to being single, being divorced or childless, etc. They also become less happy to focus on the role of housewife and become more demanding in their own labor market jobs. But such changes do not coincide with the trend in urban males’ marriage and family movement. Such discrepancy in values results in urban females’ marriage dilemma. Furthermore, women still look traditional on the issue of marriage age. Most females still hold expectation of match with some males older than themselves. Such preference does not change with education and income. The existence of mating gradient and the old age of leftover women when they enter the marriage market make it difficult for them to find an ideal marriage mate.