What marriage means to a woman?

There are as many different kinds of women as there are men and everyone in between, but certain traits cannot go unnoticed in females that seem to reflect their views on marriage and what marriage means to them. Marriage itself has morphed over the years and what it symbolizes. Not everyone needs or desires marriage, and this article presents those women who do. Women, perhaps more than any other trait, love the connection, security, longevity, and bond that marriage has the potential to give them. Culturally speaking, these traits look different, but the idea of them seems continuous and universal. Women also value companionship, communication (verbally, physically, and emotionally), and familial ties. Although women are more financially independent than they’ve ever been before, this does not seem to take away the desires mentioned above and the longing for someone to share all of life’s ups and downs with as well. No longer is marriage an expected course of action for family planning only. Many women want to and marry for a myriad of reasons, as mentioned above. Love plays a large component and is what many people learn in therapy because this love is a subconscious attempt to manage their past examples of what love means.

Healing old wounds or continuing positive examples

As individuals and couples begin to delve deeper into treatment, they often discover that their current needs, desires, wants, and attractions can be tied back to how they were treated growing up by their parents, caregivers, and peers. Sometimes a person who grows up without the basic needs of care, especially emotionally, often looks for a partner who may offer this more competently. It is a natural desire to heal and to give the self what the self longs for. On this other side instead of attempting to heal wounds, many women (and men) are attracted to partners who continue the invalidation or the abuse that they may have experienced growing up either in an attempt to “fix it with a do-over” or to continue the cycle because that is all they know and they know their role in it. Counseling is a place where people can begin to learn that marriage can indeed be a place to heal, but more often, counselors will educate on what reparenting means in marriage. This does not mean caring for one another codependently but rather holding each other accountable for maladaptive behaviors and ways of handling conflict. Women have especially reported that this reparenting of each other and the self really heals and is so important to marriage itself.