My grandma has a lot of gold in her home. She knows she can’t last for long in this world so she wants to share all the gold for her kids. When she gave my family her gold, she told me to exchange them all for jewelry. It sounded unreasonable as I could think of many other ways to use the gold, like putting them aside for a rainy day. I asked her why, and she told me that the jewelry was going to be my dowry when I got married, something I could use to impress the husband’s family. My family didn’t listen to her though. We put them aside instead.
Other than that I have no real experience with dowries. But I sometimes hear that joke of “saving money for marriage” among women, which I guess is referring to dowries. I really hate dowries. I can feel something status-biased about them. If a woman can’t prove she has enough money, does it mean no more hope for her to marry?