Sounds bad doesn't it @halfwaythroughaugust ???
But a surprising amount of women have done it. Married for convenience, because they wanted kids, and more importantly, so they weren't left on-the-shelf. It probably doesn't happen quite so much now, as there are many more opportunities for women.
But certainly some 35+ years ago, women would marry the first guy who wanted to marry them, as long as he had his own teeth and a job. Especially the working classes. The working-class women from the town I came from, who stayed single and never married, ended up living with their parents until the parents died, and then ended up fighting for the tenancy of the house, or fighting with extended family for the ownership of the house if it was owned... which it usually wasn't.
Then they struggled alone financially, for YEARS, and stayed alone.
I remember one woman thinking the house she shared with her parents (had her at 32, and she was the only one,) was owned, and when her parents died 3 days apart, that the house would go to her. She was shocked to discover it was rented from the council, and as the tenancy was not in her name, she had no right to take over the tenancy. She had to find a private let flat immediately, and has been living alone since. She was 40 then, and is 51 now. She looks 70 - really frumpy, and aged for her years.
But yeah, as I said, it was not uncommon pre mid 1980s, for women to marry a man they didn't actually really love. Some of them are still with him, because it's just easier than leaving. Many women stayed for the children, and the financial security, and then by the time they got to the stage where the children had left, and they weren't financially vulnerable, it was too late to start over with someone else.
I know some people will say, 'just because you're middle aged/in your 50s, that doesn't mean you can't start over with another man.' But it really is too late for many. And most women can't be arsed with another man anyway.
And as many posters have said, it is cruel to stay with a man you don't love, but as I said, many women do it/have done it. And many men do it too... (Marry a woman they don't really love.) But they do tend to be more likely to leave. But ONLY when they have got another woman to go to.
I have known many a couple where the man has just stayed til the youngest kid got to early to mid teens, and then fucked off with another woman. Leaving his wife with the kids, the bills, and the mortgage or rent, while he parades his new squeeze around, spending money on her, going on fancy holidays, and pursuing expensive hobbies, while his ex (and the kids,) go without.
A woman in a dull marriage with a man she is not in love with is more likely to stay, for security and convenience. A man is more likely to leave. As I said, often when the youngest is in their early to mid teens, and ONLY when they have got another woman to go to. That said, I have known quite a few couples where the man has left, and then realised his mistake, and begged to come back. Most women - sensibly - have told him to jog on.