Abstract
Objective : The purpose of this study was to investigate factors that discourage women from marrying and to examine the relationship between background factors and the decision to remain unmarried based on a cross-sectional survey.
Materials : Of 859 unmarried women at five universities or vocational colleges and five companies in Tokyo, 666 (77.5%) responded to the survey.
Method : The questionnaire was delivered to respondents through school and company staff, and filled out and mailed back by the respondents themselves. We proposed that the following five conditions may discourage women from marrying; (1) a woman must perform most of the housework after marriage; (2) a woman must quit her job upon marriage; (3) a woman must quit her job for birth and childcare; (4) a woman must live with her husband's parents; (5) a woman must care for her husband's parents at home. Cross tabulation and chi-square tests were conducted using the statistical package SAS.
Results : 1. The proportion of respondents who considered conditions (4) and (5) to be serious obstacles to marriage was the highest. The proportion who considered conditions (2), (3) and (5) serious obstacles to marriage differed between students and workers. The proportion of women workers who considered condition (5) a serious obstacle to marriage was high. 2. The higher the age of respondents, the more respondents considered all five conditions to be serious obstacles to marriage. This tendency was marked for workers. 3. A significant association was found between the attitude toward conditions (2) and (3) and the students' mothers' lives, and also between the attitude toward conditions (4) and (5) and the workers' mothers' lives.
Conclusion : 1. The problem of caring for her husband's parents at home was one of the most serious obstacles concerning marriage for older workers in particular. 2. It was found that as the age of women increased, more unmarried women considered the burden of housework, job interruption, living together with the husband's parents, and care of the husband's parents to be serious obstacles to marriage. 3. It appears that the mother's life influenced the degree to which an unmarried woman student considered job interruption due to marriage and birth to be an obstacle to marriage, as well as the degree to which a women worker considered caring for her husband's parents at home to be an obstacle to marriage.
