title: The status of unmarried Hong Kong women and the social factors contributing to their delayed marriage.
abstract: Summary   The Dixon model, which assesses the factors responsible for a rise in marriage age, has been applied to a number of Hong Kong women, aged from 20 to 24 in 1973, who were interviewed in depth. Four of them have delayed marriage due to the unavailability of mates, in particular the new marriage style and difficulty of locating a companionable mate. For 21 marriage was not economically feasible. Three anticipated they would lose too many opportunities by early marriage which was consequently undesirable at that time; only one sought to gain opportunities by a young marriage. All three factors work in concert to some extent. The age structure contributes to women's participation in the labour force and they could meet neither their obligations to their families nor to themselves by marrying early. Delayed marriage enhances women's status, and is an attractive policy for the developing world.
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Salaff