“Leftover women”is a term that refers to women who remain unmarried in their late twenties and beyond. Some people regard leftover women as a social force to be reckoned with”, while others have argued that the term should be taken as a positive term to mean“successful women”. In a 2010 Chinese National Marriage Survey, it was reported that 9 out of 10 men believe that women should be married before they are 27 years old. In China leftover women are mostly well-educated middle class. Women today are more free and able to live independently in comparison to previous generations.
“剩女（leftover women）”这个词被用来指那些在二十八九岁，甚至更大年龄仍未结婚的女性。有些人认为“剩女”是需要认真对待的社会力量，而另一些人则主张这个词应被视为褒义词，意思是“成功女性”。据2010年的中国婚姻调查（Chinese National Marriage Survey）报道，90%的男人认为女人应该在27岁之前结婚。在中国，大部分“剩女”都是受过良好教育的中产阶级。跟以前几代人相比，如今的女性更加自由，更能够独立生活。
