Bleak Outlook For Spinsters In Britain

Chronicle (Levin), 7 October 1948, Page 4

Bleak Outlook For Spinsters In Britain

Few women over 30 years of age in Britain today have prospects of hnding husbands, according to a report released by a welT known Harley Sbreet psychologist, an anthropologist and a surgeon, who conducted a special survey of ,6000 men and women who 'had written to the Marriage Society asking it to help them tp find husbahds or wives. Although women outnumber ( men by only 14 in every 100 in the marria.geable age groups, men are showing an in,creasing disinclination to marry. "It is an appalling thought," states the report, "that thousa-nds of single women' today stand no chance at all of meeting a husband. Men ,do not seem to have the right attitude to marriage. Enough suitable partners in the right age groups cannot b.e found and it js Eopeless for us at present to ,consider the eases ,of any.. morg , women ' over 30." S.ome conclusions reached by the three investigators were: (1) Men turn down women after a mutual introduction by ' the Marriage Society more readily than women turn down men. (2) Women do not mind very much whether a man is handsome, but the majority prefer their prospective husbands to be taller than they are. Women over 5ft 10in in height foun.d it most difficult to find husbands. (3) Nine out of 10 .men and women do not eonsjder religion an important aspect of their marriages. (4) Most man do not kncrw what they want when they seek a wife. (5) The greatest obsession of most unmarried women over 30 is fear of loneliness in later lxfe. (6) An increasing number of women think more of their careers than of children.