Why women go for older men
Published on: Thursday, April 28, 2016
Kota Kinabalu: Maturity, love and romantic; a study found that these are the three main traits that older men and married men possess which young women feel attracted to.Universiti Institut Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Senior Lecturer Dr Rozita Uji Mohammed said in a study conducted among 276 female students at the university recently, 32 per cent said they do not mind marrying older men and that surprisingly, 12 of them said they do not mind to be in a polygamous marriage.Speaking at the Women Conference 2016 at the Wisma Wanita, Rozita said more than half the respondents believed their families would not object to them marrying young.ADVERTISEMENT "This may be due to the fact that an overwhelmingly 60 per cent of them reported that they have family members who got married between the age of 16 and 24," she said.All the participants are studying for their diplomas and bachelor degrees in various faculties in the university.The study aimed to identify students' inclination to get married in their early 20s and whether they are willing to marry someone else's husbands or men with 10 years or more in age difference.About 19 per cent of respondents thought their men should be between 29 and 34 years of age whereas the majority 80 per cent still thought their ideal partners should be between 23 and 28 years old.ADVERTISEMENT Other than the three main characters listed above, other characteristics which would motivate young women to choose older men or someone else's husbands as their life partners are career stability and the men's ability to understand them."Nevertheless, the fact that young women are now choosing to get married early is quite uncanny. Before we achieved independence, our grandmothers were married while they were still very young. After independence, we put career first.
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"But now, the trend is going backwards. I believe this is mainly due to the media, the novels and movies that glorify young love," she said.It had been proven, she said, that couples tend to stay in the marriage longer if the age gap between them is five years or more and if the women have higher education.Rozita proposed that in order to curb young marriages which sometimes do not last very long, institutes of higher education in the country should consider introducing courses on family and parenting.There is also a need to provide grants for undergraduates who were married while still studying so as to avoid short-term problems."Universities must take new approaches to eliminate this early marriage symptom before it becomes worse. Among them is by conducting a career building campaign at a young age."I also suggest that talk sessions be held to give more intensive information on the meaning of marriage, ideal age to get married, the problems with getting married at a young age and the benefit of matured marriages," she said.However, more importantly, Rozita said, there is an urgent need to teach young female undergraduates on where to put their priorities.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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Currently, she said, many put marriage as the most important on their to-do list followed by graduation and career."Instead, we should tell them, get your degree first, help your parents first, build your career… and after all these boxes are ticked, then you can get married," she said.