If you’re educated, a working professional, single and above the age of 27, you’re just as good as leftover food – well, according to the All-China Women’s Federation, that is. In a photo posted by AwareSG’s Facebook page, China’s state feminist agency (the Women’s Federation) has a disapproving outlook on education, apparently the more you spend time studying, the less you’re worth. You also shouldn’t set your standards too high when it comes to a man, or you’d risk being a ‘leftover woman’, and when you have him, remember to work hard to keep him by constantly changing the way you dress and look.
In an article by the New York Times, it’s also reported that some cities in China have arranged matchmaking events for educated women to combat the ‘leftover women crisis.’ The Women’s Federation was founded in 1949 to ‘protect women’s rights and interests’ – which, by the sounds of it, revolves around getting a man at any cost and places education as the least important part of a woman’s life.
Coincidentally, the western world has also been debating about the ‘official age’ in which women are ‘old’. Unlike the All-China Women’s Federation though, this survey by a dating site doesn’t compare women to leftovers, it just asked women when they stop ‘feeling young’ and what signifies this feeling. According to www.SeekingArrangement.com, the survey respondents feel old at 28 when they notice the following changes:
-Your career is more important than your sex life.
-You start buying property and stop renting.
-You stop clubbing.
-You don’t know what’s the number 1 song in the current charts.
The Dailymail also listed down other signs of ‘old age’, which begs us to ask the question- why is everyone so obsessed about educated female professionals and their personal life?
(Sources: NYTimes, AwareSG, The Grindstone, Dailymail UK)
