Men definitely think marriage is a status. I've worked in employment services for people who are dual-diagnosis and when it comes to employment, most manger's I've met seem to line up with other facets of society in seeing married men as safer bets. Even people who look for friends have some sort of vetting or evaluation process. Same for company leadership. Same for politics.

Although there are always outliers (which I call up to 7%), statistical significance seems to be the fundamental framework to which we make decisions. Not going into poorly lit places after dark is statistical significance. the Military Police had a saying when I was in, "nothing good happens after dark or 10:00, whichever comes first in Alaska." It was satire, it was funny, but we were not joking. Even in South Korea, the Korean National Police Agency (KNPA) will find any reason to mess with Americans after dark.

I have many great guy friends who are single, but still many situations exist, such as a bad previous marriage, work too much, etc. which should not be held against them for single. One single guy that statistically looks better in the eyes of society is a widower. Not only was he a man that another woman verified, but he's also able to find within himself the patience, strength, and grace to be a single parent. Even in this case, society says he's a safe bet because he has the woman-verification badge, ha-ha! I'll never forget, I read an article about single men wearing wedding rings to job interviews.