UNCOMMITTED

Study: Unmarried Women Have Low Self-Esteem

Society "disapproves."

Even in this day and age, the pressure's on for women to find a husband. A new study of 22,000 people from around the world found that British women who shacked up with their boyfriends before they were married were unhappier than married women because society disapproves of their arrangement. Women who lived with their boyfriends without a ring on their finger in countries with traditional views of marriage such as the United States, Bulgaria, Brazil, and Mexico were found to have low self-esteem. In countries with a more relaxed outlook on marriage such as the Netherlands, this was not the case. Men, on the other hand, were not affected by their society's views on marriage, since they are traditionally considered to be "breadwinners." The German research team suggested that women are "pitied and look down upon" for not being married and could improve their self-esteem by convincing their boyfriends to walk down the aisle.