Abstract: The marriage dilemma of involuntary bachelorhood is a prolonged phenomenon of rural China in the context of universal marriage.Using empirical materials that merged with nationwide survey data,press reports and in- depth interviews,this paper explores marriage dilemma of rural involuntary bachelors in marriage market from gender inequality perspective.The results show that marriage dilemma of rural involuntary bachelors both reinforces and is reinforced by forms and relations of their economic and social inequalities.Involuntary bachelorhood is due to the condition that these males cannot meet the anticipation of mate selection in the marriage market.We argue that involuntary bachelorhood is jeopardized not so much by the availability of brides as by gender inequality effects in the marriage market.

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摘要： 大龄未婚男性的婚姻困境是在中国农村普婚制社会下长期存在的现象。文章利用全国性的专项调查、主流媒体报道和实地调查数据,从婚姻市场上的性别不平等视 角来研究农村大龄男性的婚姻困境。宏观数据分析显示,用性别结构失衡来解释农村大龄男性的"婚姻剥夺"显得原发性因果关系不强和实证性不足,而简单地以贫困概括农村大龄男性婚姻困境的主因并没有充分考虑婚姻的本质和功能。基于性别不平等的理论视角和实证研究,认为婚姻市场上性别不平等对贫困男性婚姻困境的影响远比人口性别结构失衡的影响更为直接和重要,农村大龄男性的婚姻困境具有独立于个体内因的社会经济结构性的成因。

关键词: 婚姻困境, 农村大龄未婚男性, 性别不平等