The number of marriages between older women and younger men has surged to a 10-year high in Taiwan, with about two out of 10 marriages since the end of last year involving such couples, government statistics showed.
Ministry of the Interior statistics showed that the percentage of such marriages in the nation was 18.2 percent at the end of last year, increasing noticeably from 14.6 percent in 1997.
However, last year’s figure lagged behind Japan’s 24.3 percent and Hong Kong’s 20.1 percent, but was ahead of Singapore’s 17.9 percent.
The phenomenon can be attributed to several factors, ministry officials said.
The fading of the conventional wisdom that “a man must marry a woman younger than himself” and the increased awareness among women of their rights can be factored in, they said.
The increasing tendency to get married later in life, or not to get married at all, which might be due to the sluggish economic climate, have also indirectly led to the rise of such marriages, the ministry said.
Women who get married later in life can choose their spouses from a wider range of men, resulting in more couples in which the woman is older, it said.
From the perspective of life expectancy, a man marrying an older woman seems to provide a guarantee for the couple to spend the rest of their lives together, they said.
It is widely believed that the growing popularity of such marriages is mainly due to women’s improved economic independence, a social scientist said.
A woman who is economically independent can pursue equality in a romantic relationship, an objective that is easier for them to obtain with younger men who can be more unconventional and more tolerant of their spouse’s age or appearance, the social scientist said.
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