In a lot of cultures, chicklets are seen as an economic liability, 'cept in cultures where they are sold, and the faster you can sell them for a good profit, the better. One less mouth to feed. They're a commodity. In India, with the dowery system, they're seen as an economic nightmare. Even if there's no price tag on them, they're still not regarded as an asset, so you get rid of the financial drain ASAP. Even in the West, this was the 'tude a long time ago, but still in recorded history. The ideal chick was a pretty, cooperative service animal and breeder cow. Technology changed that.

Now in the less technologically advanced cultures it's still like that, and in others the mindset needs to catch up to the changing reality that chicks can be free to dictate their own life and may even be an economic asset to the family.

Personally I think the way this works is rubbish and I was lucky enough to have the freedom to dictate my own life and didn't play these idiotic games since I learnt at a young age that the only individual you can really count on is yourself, and I was not going to be tied down by any discretionary time destroying, perpetually inconvenient, often annoying, extra work inducing, pointless economic black holes. (The list goes on, but trust me. . .the epithets would NOT make it to the front page. I'll save the famine and stew pot jokes(?) for another post.)