China's Women Still Put Good Husband Over Career
By wchung | 20 May, 2025

Fifty-seven percent of China’s women agree that marrying a good husband is preferable to building a career, according to a Chinese Marriage Situation Survey released Wednesday. That percentage represents a decline of 14% from 2010.

The shift reflects more realistic views on marriage and property, according to Tian Fanjiang, Secretary General for the Committee of Match-making Service Industries of China Association of Social Workers which co-produced the survey with the Baihe website based on 50,384 responses.

A stable income is seen by 92% of women as essential for marriage. Seventy percent feel that a man should only seek to marry after buying his own housing.

Among single women 80% believe a man can only reasonably consider a relationship if he earns at least 4,000 yuan ($635) per month, a 10% increase from 2010. Over a quarter of such women (27.1%) think a man should only consider a relationship if he earns over 10,000 yuan ($1,857) a month.

Forty percent of men are unwilling to add wives’ names to their home ownership deeds while 40% of women have asked their husbands to do so. Half of the women expect men to pay at least the down payment if not the full purchase price of their home.

Half of singles report knowing of flash marriages among friends or relatives while 21.7% know couples divorcing after only half a year or less of marriage. Flash divorces have been personally seen by 32.8% of respondents.

Men and women who stay single past the age of 27 — the so-called leftover people — harbor deep reservations about marriage. Forty-five percent are apprehensive about marriage due to high divorce rates, while 41.7% fear losing their freedom, 37.5% are afraid of shouldering family responsibilities and 30.6% are worried about housing situations. Some expressed fears of becoming vulnerable to domestic violence.

Yet about 70% of interviewees who got married without a house, car, diamond ring or elaborate wedding ceremony — so-called “flat” marriage — are satisfied with their lives.

Women seem to be abandoning traditional notions of gender roles on dates. Thirty percent have no preconceived notions of who should pay for dates while only 26.1% think men should pay. The majority of women are in favor of splitting costs.