Should there be any age difference between male and female for marriage?

I never understood why a woman should be younger than a man in a marriage. Men don't generally live as long as women... Or is that the point exactly? And the last poster is right. Women can take care of themselves. Maybe we should go bag 18 year old men so we don't outlive them so much. What do ya reckon? =)

I fell in love with a woman six years younger than me. If she had been six years older than me, I would still have married her. I don't think age has any bearing on relationships anymore.

I do not care about stuff like that. Love is love and love does not care about age. My bf is a year younger than me - but i wouldt care if he was 10 years older.. I love him, not the day he was born.

To a certain extent, I think it's good for one partner to be older than the other. It's not so much about wealth, as experience. A pair of 20-year-olds starting out in the world together are going to make some horrific errors that would have been avoidable if one of them had been older and more experience ... since he or she would have already made those mistakes. The older person contributes experience and (in theory) stability since they should be finished experimenting with random weirdness. The younger person contributes creativity and new ideas, keeping the older one in touch with a part of the culture they might otherwise abandon.

I think that those beliefs are most likely holdovers from a previous era. In times gone past, it was advantageous for a young woman to marry an older man because he was most likely already financially independent and better able to support her and any future children. In today's society, however, women are every bit as able to support themselves and don't need to rely on anyone else for their support. I would imagine that in time, this custom will likely fade away.