Mail-order bride

Mail-order brides are women who list themselves in catalogs and are picked by males for marriage. These are usually women from developing countries, hoping for a better life in a developed country through a foreign husband. The term mail-order bride dates back to the 19th century. These brides often come from one country and immigrate to another for marriage reasons. The women's motivations may include:

 getting away from unemployment, gender-pay gaps, malnutrition, or inflation in their home country
 getting a foreign husband (which they may believe would be more masculine and/or better able to satisfy their sexual and emotional needs than the men within their own country)
 living in another country which they may personally like better
 moving and then sponsoring the rest of their family's immigration to that country

Besides these main personal motivations, mail-order brides were used in many places across the world where there was a shortage of women, such as in:

 Japan, where there was a lack of Japanese women who wanted to live in the countryside, and so farmer men were encouraged to get mail-order brides from other Asian countries
 the Jamestown colony in 1620, when the Virginia Company that managed the colony sponsored the immigration of 140 women to the colony, in hopes of reducing desertion by the settlers, and/or to prevent the men from marrying Native American women

 International marriage agencies 
International marriage agencies are businesses which connect men and women from different countries, for either marriage, dating, or becoming pen pals. Although they serve a similar function to mail-order bride agencies, they are closer to being like an international dating service, rather than the mail-order bride system, where women often didn't know who they were getting married to.

References

Category:Marriage