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The Societal Pressure to Get Married
It’s becoming a societal norm and it’s not funny.
Marriage is a beautiful thing, but we often forget it is not supposed to define a person. In society today, an unmarried woman is perceived as incomplete. People constantly remind her of timelines and the perfect age to start or stop having children. If she is thirty years old or above, people begin to make snide comments about her unmarried status and how her life choices caused her unfortunate situation. If she acts a certain way, it’s attributed to the fact that she’s unmarried. This puts a lot of pressure on her and often causes her to make decisions that she wouldn’t have.
This pressure is very familiar to me. I’ve heard stories from different marriages, and I wonder if these women would have made better choices if the pressure didn’t exist.
STORY ONE: Uzor’s Story
Uzor’s first marriage had not worked out as she planned. After sixteen years and two kids, she found the courage to get out of the abusive marriage. Friends discouraged her, telling her that the devil she knew was better than the angel she didn’t.
“Manage it. You already have two kids for him. Where are you going to?” They all told her.
