whats making more and more women opt out when a relationship gets too serious we explore the mindset of commitmentphobic women for years it was the male gender who had the monopoly on commitmentphobia but not anymore single women are growing in numbers and no matter what the reasons ladies today are making the most of their miss status confirms clinical psychologist seema hingorrany that earlier commitment phobia was gender specific but now more and more women are facing it i think career prospects play an important role as more women are choosing professions that require them to travel a lot and dont want a relationship or marriage stalling them a lot of women complain that theyve seen their friends or family members go through a divorce and hence view marriage as a negative thing she says she has also noticed ladies looking for personality traits of their father in their boyfriends and as a result they are never satisfied with their partner commitmentphobic women often enter into a relationship and then oscillate in many ways they sabotage their own relationship by making the man wait for too long or nitpicking on negative aspects a lot of women also avoid settling down as they want to experience life travel work make their money and fear that having a husband would compromise their lifestyle or curb their freedom varkha chulani clinical psychologist says that the whole concept of marriage has undergone a change earlier it was a status symbol to have a mrs before your name but now more women are seeking their own identity and no longer looking for completion from a man she feels there is an anxiety of sorts creeping in women and they are becoming more cautious of their choices they are realizing that they can get their emotional and sexual needs satisfied without a wedding band i think women are also realizing that marriage takes a lot of time and effort and they would rather devote it to some other sphere of their life theres been a shift in the mindset people feel that marriage can wait and instead are opting for liveins or shortterm relationshipshow to identify a commitmentphobic woman commitment phobics can be easily identified they generally have short term relationships are not married and keep citing the same excuse that they have not met the right person they constantly choose inappropriate or unattainable partners like a married man or someone who lives overseas this way there is little chance of the relationship turning into a stable longterm one they treat their partner as a low priority and dont spend much time with them they often claim that they need more space in the relationship and dont call for days they keep hanging onto the hope of getting back together with an ex or have an unrealistic portrait of how a partner should be