China's 'leftover' women
The article makes it sound as if this is a modern phenomenon and as if it is exclusive to China. This pressure for women to get married has always existed everywhere. The burden has somewhat alleviated recently in Europe (maybe in other developed countries too), but it is certainly there for all the developing countries.
The "pressure" for these women to find their ideal spouse is similar to the "pressure" startups face in finding ideal employees. That is, they want the absolute best at rock bottom prices.
If you read the article, many of these women who desired to get married had numerous suitors, but these suitors were judged unfit for one reason or another and thus failed to meet the women's strict requirements. Much like companies wanting to hire 100x developers at 30$ an hour, these women are unfortunately trying to bend the supply/demand curves to their tastes, rather than working within the reality of the market.
As an aside, marriage as an institution in western societies is now a legal quagmire [1]. It's legal roots were laid down in times when women did not earn much and did not vote, so they were paid very generously in case of a divorce whose fault could be proven. Nowadays, divorce is the single most powerful legal instrument to take half of someone's net worth without any reason whatsoever. Marriage as an institution is beyond repair, and any couple who supports the spirit of family unity should boycott legal marriage for their own sake, as it leads to extremely toxic financial incentives for the lower earning spouse.
Just another case study in man-made systems which are patched and reworked continuously without thought to the designer's original intent.
It's odd that there are so many female "leftovers". With the skewed gender balance due to the one child policy, I'd expect mostly male "leftovers". Though I guess they don't carry as much of a stigma as women do.
This has to do with 'modernization' in the sense that moving away from agrarian society has changed the dynamic of picking partners. It has also given ample freedom to pick and reject: the search space has broadened. When the search space is broadened, you end up thinking that 'more suitors' are out there.
Why is it always women issues? There are men leftover too.
As I see it, men are leftover because they are passed over (by women) for "better men".
Women are leftover because they are passed over by men looking for "younger women".
So, to optimize mating, men need to work hard in their youth and establish themselves and women need to be VERY active in their partner hunt.
As harsh as it sounds, men juggle career and love. Some men succeed, some don't women are now being asked to do the same. Some women will succeed, some won't. I don't feel sorry.
Having no children has big implications when the pension system is not sufficient to ensure retirement.
Given there are more guys than girls maybe the problem is the girls are too picky.
"Twice a week groups of about 30 to 60 parents meet in the same spot, each carrying pieces of paper containing information about their child - their job, level of education and salary, as well as their physical attributes."