Thai women staying single

[Sawatdee]

Thai women staying single
The Nation, 16th August 2006

It's well known that Thai parents are like their peers in other Asian countries. Their children's future is at the top of their agenda, and they take it as their solemn duty to provide their offspring with the best education possible.


They pay a lot of attention to their children's life partners and to their grandchildren, and their care-giving lasts up to the very final day of their lives.


But it seems that as the years have gone by, children, particularly the females, have embarked on a mission to relieve their parents from worry.

The National Statistical Office says that more and more women are deciding to stay single. And as Thailand is not that receptive to the single-mother concept, that means the more unmarried women, the fewer new children.


The office's latest statistics are quite interesting. Women of child-bearing age, 15 to 49 years, number 18.7 million. While only 6.1 million live in urban areas, 37.2 per cent of these are single. More interestingly, Bangkok has the highest percentage of single women, 41.8 per cent.

What do these figures show?


Bangkok has a reputation as a big city in which most workers have white-collar jobs. Obviously, they earn more than those working with their backs turned to the sun. Now that they earn more, they can follow a more independent lifestyle - spending their hard-earned money on whatever they like.


Unsurprisingly, an executive with the Mall Group said that of all the departments in a department store, Cosmetics showed the highest growth rate in terms of sales. Despite dismal economic circumstances, first-half Cosmetics Department sales jumped more than 20 per cent against average growth of some 10 per cent for all departments.


Even though few women have better jobs than the men, more and more women are becoming more prosperous in their particular occupations. Unlike in some countries - such as Chile, where women earned 19 per cent less than men in 2003 and where the gap was nearly 40 per cent in jobs requiring a high level of education - Thai women can study to as high a level as they want and reach for any job they can dream of.


It seems it's no longer applicable to use the phrase "Boys like to learn, girls like to play at tea parties" in regard to Thai women. Women can be as serious as men when it comes to work, if not more serious.

To married people, nothing could ever be better than an independent life in which they need not worry about others' feelings. And more and more single women are of the same opinion. Getting married means building a family, usually with one or more children. Obviously, they do not want to end up with the same worries that their mothers had for them.

[paul_au]

Yes I have notived all the single woman in Bangkok, that makes me feel good, plenty of choice.

[adam7745]

It's the same trend that has been going on in the west for a while now - better education and higher paying jobs equals less emphasis on marriage and children.

[tomboR]

I agree with Adam here.
In my experience young people are staying single longer.

In my parents generation an average family size was 6-10 siblings, and they usually married, what is considered now, at a young age, (late teens, early 20's).

In my generation an average family size 2-4 siblings, and tend to marry more in their late 20's.

And its not just women, single women = single men proportionatly.

[khunmark]

Re: Thai women stay single
The other thing to remember is with more women than men in Thailand some women believe that they would rather be single that than compete for such a deminishing resource.

[Pailin]

Is there really that big a difference between the numbers or men and women? There are plenty of men for the women...

At ages 15-64 years: (male 22,763,274/female 23,304,793) From This Site

and

15-64: 0.98 m/f Total population: 0.98 m/f (2008 est.) From This One

And upon some quick research, that's a smaller gap than experienced in my country. Maybe I should be frightened by our great diminishing resource? Ha!

[David_Loves_Ubonwan]

Re: Thai women stay single
The other thing to remember is with more women than men in Thailand some women believe that they would rather be single that than compete for such a deminishing resource.

That is just a myth that people like to repeat. The actual ratio is 0.98 men to 1 woman and is exactly the same ratio as in the UK.

This compares to a ratio of 0.99 men to one woman in both Australia and New Zealand and 0.97 men to one woman in the USA and 0.96 men to 1 woman in Singapore.

David

[BUCKY]

Its actually lower than the statistic shows with the high percentage of gays and trans in Thailand.

[OhIC]

Is there really that big a difference between the numbers or men and women? There are plenty of men for the women...

At ages 15-64 years: (male 22,763,274/female 23,304,793) From This Site

and

15-64: 0.98 m/f Total population: 0.98 m/f (2008 est.) From This One

That's why Thai men like to have minor wives.

[David_Loves_Ubonwan]

Its actually lower than the statistic shows with the high percentage of gays and trans in Thailand.

There would have to be more than 1% of the male population, or well over 300,000, gay or trans to make a difference to the figures. I will believe that when I see verified statistics.

David