Do single women ever want to be married? A quantitative survey of single women perceptin of marriage in North-Central Nigeria

Background: A majority of presently single women are postponing marriage in most parts of the world. Most women prefer to remain single. Despite this seeming acceptable trend, most cultures and societies still perceive marriage as important, desirable and the only means through which women can fully realize their potentials as mothers and wives. The main objective of the study was to examine the perception of presently single women about marriage.  Methods: They study made use of structured questionnaire to explore the relationship among socio economic status of women, influences, location and former marital status on their perception of marriage. Results: Findings indicated that women of all socio economic status desired to be married. The odds ratio or the likelihood of desiring marriage was highest among tertiary education level women and civil servants (.456, .876, and .567). Influences determined the perception of never married women about marriage. Over sixty percent of women accepted that their location in urban centres and former marital status affected their perception about marriage. In all women looked at their present status as transitional and desired to be married at some point. Conclusion/recommendation: It is therefore plausible to articulate that despite the global and national postponement of marriage among women, the women in the north central Nigeria look at marriage as desirable and that they want to be married at some point in their lives. There is therefore an urgent need for programmes that will prepare women towards happier marriages.