Abstract: The socio-economic status and equality issues of rural women have always been of great concern to economists. However, the impact of marital status on rural women's non-agricultural employment, especially the impact of different first marriage ages on their non-agricultural employment, has not been fully discussed. Based on the fifth period cross-sectional data of CGSS (2013-2021), this study explores the effect of late marriage on the probability of rural women's non-agricultural employment. The research results indicate that compared to rural women who do not marry late, the probability of non-agricultural employment for women who marry late has been significantly increased, and that there is a significant“late marriage employment effect”. The mechanism analysis shows that the later the age of first marriage for rural women, the weaker the influence of traditional gender concepts and reproductive constraints, thereby helping them seek and obtain non-agricultural employment. The heterogeneity analysis indicates that this effect is weaker in the eastern and central regions, stronger in the western and northeastern regions, and has a greater impact on the populations born earlier. Further discussion reveals that rural women who marry later have a higher quality of non-agricultural employment, and that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the age of first marriage and non-agricultural employment and its quality. The optimal age for first marriage for rural women may be around 28 years old. Therefor, cultivating women's independent spirit, adjusting gender role expectations, and establishing basic beliefs against early marriage can help improve the work ability of married women in rural areas, and thus obtain more equal family and socio-economic status.

Key words: the first marriage age, rural women, the non-agricultural employment