Perhaps. Of course I've personally known quite a few women who stayed in relationships for far more then 2.5 years who just had the 'hope' that he'd come around someday and want to get married. Of course the men didn't and the women finally moved on after MANY years with them.
My thoughts: If you know that your partner doesn't want to marry and you do...get out of the relationship. Hoping or expecting someone will change their mind seems like a pointless act. Why invest emotionally, financially, etc...in a relationship where there are different goals and mindsets? That never made sense to me.
Amen! (non-religiously of course)
I don't have the references but, actually, throughout history, marriage was more beneficial to the male. It's only in the relative few hundred years that women had any real legal power. Since some of the posts have been screamingly funny, thought I might poke my nose in just a bit.
I only married my husband of 35 years because he felt the need for the traditional socially-approved method of cohabitation, because he wanted children. I was perfectly happy with the status quo, but despite my love of thumbing my nose at the norm, I had to concede that it was unfair to subject any children we might have to the inevitable judgemental, self-righeous BS that would come their way. And I honestly didn't mind a small concession to his desires by standing in front of a JoP for 3 minutes to make it "legal." I married actually because I respected and admired the man and wanted to join him on whatever journey he was taking. He was my friend, companion, and we treated each other as fellow human beings above everything else. I could see growing old with him -- I wanted to be his LIFE-partner (which I am).
Marriage is not easy....it's work. It's grown-up time with acceptance of responsibility, not only for yourself but also for your partner, and the legal ramifications if not. The sense of "freedom" of discontinuing a cohabitation is misleading and delusional. There are the same emotional traumas with both and splitting of joint property can be just as bad in both. If there are children involved, it's just as much as a nightmare (Palimony). If no emotional trauma on a break-up is experienced, then there was probably not much there to base a real relationship on in the first place I'd think.
If one is viewing relationships based mostly on appearance and frequency of sex (with a strong concern for the sanctity of the paycheck and possessions), then one probably shouldn't get married in the first place. Wrong reasons for marrying and would eventually become unsatisfactory for both sides -- sooner than later. So, for those who choose not to trust anyone else, not to fully share emotionally, and feel the need for "I (or you) can leave anytime I (or you) want because we don't need no stinkin' piece of paper to define or constrain our love for each other", you would be totally right in not marrying. And you should stick to your guns.
And, yes -- women get older, wrinklier, "fatter", and bodies DO go all to hell from childbearing (which the guys had some small involvement in). And newer models (as in cars) are sought by their increasingly dissatisfied male partners. Then these also older, wrinklier, balder, "fatter" guys will find it unfathomable why the young things aren't giving him a serious look.