A married woman in her early twenties struggling to feed and keep her home gains more respect than another who is older, financially stable, and emotionally balanced. Even in rare situations where she and her family depend largely on an unmarried woman for livelihood, she is still respected because she has a crown over her head – her husband.
Marriage: a union between two people (a man and woman), that legally, socially, and culturally recognize them as an entity.
From this definition, marriage does not make a person more human than another. It does not instil more wisdom and creativity in the persons involved, neither is it an escape or shield from the realities of life. However, there is this perception that married women are more mature and experienced than unmarried. Unfortunately, the same is not seen for a man, a man is a man whether he is married or not.
Marriage is a good thing. The union brings companionship and togetherness. Marriage provides you with a partner that you can build with; making life easy. Marriage makes you more responsible as you now have people to look after.
So yes, marriage is good however not everyone will be married and for those that will be, it would not be at the same time or age, and we must respect these choices. Several times, single women have shared experiences of how they gave up on marriage after several attempts to find a compatible partner which did not work out.
Marriages sometimes do not also become what it is supposed to be. Domestic and emotional violence are inseparable in some marriages. There have been stories of how some women have been happy and accomplished before marriage but rather than get better, their lives took a different turn after marriage. These kinds of situations are discouragement for some people on whether or not to get married.
Marriage is not an achievement, therefore, should not be made a yardstick for women’s accomplishment. Treating a woman as a failure or tagging her as less important just because she does not have ‘an acclaimed crown‘ over her head is just disheartening. Judging and treating unmarried women as a threat will not make you a better person neither does it make society a better place.
Being unmarried does not make a person unhappy therefore we should stop assuming every unmarried woman is unhappy. Well, a lot of married women are frustrated and unhappy and only hide it all under their crown.
The pressure to marry early is one of the major reasons a lot of women have found themselves in unhappy situations. If only we respected women for being human and not being under a man, maybe the stories will be different.