The Nexus Between Women’s Economic Autonomy and the Escalation of Delayed Marriage and Divorce: An Anthropological and Sociological Analysis

Abstract

This research examines the burgeoning socio-structural shift within Algerian society, where the transition from traditional domesticity to female economic agency has precipitated a critical rise in divorce and delayed marriage. Amidst the globalized proliferation of "Gender" as a socio-cultural construct, women have transcended their conventional roles, acquiring a level of financial autonomy that fundamentally reconfigures the patriarchal marital contract. Utilizing a descriptive-analytical framework, this study explores the friction between emerging female leadership-oriented psychographies and the static expectations of traditional masculinity. The findings suggest a significant correlation between professional self-sufficiency and the erosion of marital dependency; as the material necessity for a male provider diminishes, the psychological threshold for entering or maintaining a suboptimal union rises. Consequently, financial independence acts as both a catalyst for female empowerment and a structural disruptor of familial stability, leading to an accelerated trend toward celibacy and marital dissolution.