Donna, a family therapist, is explaining to her friend betty, a 40 year old african american female and vice president at a large bank, that betty is having difficulty finding a mate due to the marriage squeeze. in simple terms, what donna means is that: men are getting "cold feet" when it comes to marriage. marriage is losing it's popularity. there is an imbalance in the ratio of men who are eligible for marriage to women who are eligible for marriage. the disadvantages of marriage outweigh the advantages.

Basically, the phrase 'marriage squeeze' refers to  an imbalance in the ratio of men who are eligible for marriage to women who are eligible for marriage. This term was used way back in the 1960s. Among all nations and races in the world, the African American women are the ones impaired by this marriage squeeze. This began in 2000 where 43% of the African American women between ages 34-40 are not yet married. The factors of this phenomenon are accounted to two events. First, their men have a relatively low unemployment rates so they are classified as 'not husband material' by women. Second, the women want to escalate up in the social class so they tend to find men of another nationality.