Winning over a Chinese mother-in-law might just be one of the hardest things to do in life, but a new survey has shed some light on what makes the in-laws warm up to you — and it’s mostly good news for guys.
Chinese consulting firm Horizon conducted a study that included 4,656 households in 36 Chinese cities to look at the influence in-laws have over marriages. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the study found that mother-in-laws love son-in-laws no matter what, especially if they make lots of money or work for the government.
Only 3.7% of son-in-laws had complaints about their mother-in-laws, while 71.7% said they received “care” from their in-laws.
When it comes to jobs and feeling “support” from the mother-in-law, 70.4% of men with low-paying jobs felt supported; 71.2% of middle-class workers also felt the same, and of course, 80.8% of wealthy husbands were definitely supported. Unemployed men weren’t included in the statistics because clearly no mother would support that kind of marriage.
The most favored child-in-laws were managerial workers for state-owned companies, which had the highest mother-in-law approval ratings (76.2% for men, 75% for women) among all other professions.
Unfortunately for most women, however, mother-in laws are particularly protective of their sons.
Only 64.6% of the wives surveyed said they were able to get along with their mother-in-law. Around 62.2% of working women with low-paying jobs felt supported by their in-laws; 65.7% of women with middle class jobs and 70.5% of wealthy wives felt their mother-in-laws approved and supported them. It would seem then that a wealthy wife is valued about the same as a husband with a low-paying job. When it came to stay-at-home wives, aka unemployed, only 62.5% were able to get along with their mother-in-laws.
Are Chinese mothers shallow? Possibly. Do women with Chinese in-laws have it harder? Absolutely.
You’d think that a country that has over 50 million less women than men would consider women a little more important, but ancient cultures die hard.
