Abstract
This research was a survey of the characteristics of ideal women before and during married life from
the perspective of a group of married men. Two hundred twenty-six legally first-time married Bangkokian
men, aged 25-40 years, were surveyed using a 25-item questionnaire on the characteristics of ideal wives
in order to obtain opinions on their spouses before they got married and during their married lives. The
samples were grouped into three categories by the number of years of marriage, i.e., married for <3 years
(n=50), married 3-<5 years (n=90), and married for 5-10 years (n=86). The results were as follows:
1. The characteristics that the men considered ideal and desired their wives to have comprised the
following: honesty and loyalty; showing care for family members; loving mindfulness, with understanding
of her husband; and morality.
2. The characteristics of the ideal wife changed significantly during married life ( p<0.001, p<0.01,
p<0.05):
- Those married for <3 years were concerned less with facial appearance, general appearance,
aging, education status, and unmarried status;
- Those married for 3-5 years were concerned less with appearance, personality, intelligence, and
virginity;
- Those married for more than 5 years showed less concern about facial appearance, personality,
attractiveness, honesty and loyalty, financial prospects, social status, occupation, unmarried status, sexuality,
and virginity.
3. The characteristics considered ideal, which increased after marriage, appeared significantly
(p<0.01, p<0.05) only among those men who had been married for more than 3 years but not more than 5
years. Those characteristics were financial prospects, education, social status, and occupation, all of which related to findings of the SES.
4. The ideal characteristics that the men wanted in their wives, which had not changed from the
time before marriage to that throughout married life and were answered by all groups of married men,
were listed in descending order as follows: (1) care of family members; (2) loving mindfulness and understanding
of the husband; (3) morality; (4) emotional stability; (5) relationship with husband’s family; (6)
self-responsibility; (7) relationship with wife’s family; (8) social manners; and (9) similar hobby or activity
in leisure time. It should be noted that loving mindfulness and understanding of the husband, morality,
emotional stability, relationship with the wife’s family and care of family members were the five most
important ideal characteristics that all men desired in their wives.
