The literature suggested that marriage provides alternative occupational achievement for women who opt by choice or by circumstance to attain socioeconomic position through their husbands' occupations, and that an advantageous social contact setting is crucial for access to promising mates so that a woman's personal attributes can be beneficial for marriage mobility. This study examined the experience of 34 women from a typically rural area (characterized by overall depression and a strong outmigration by the youth of the areas) to understand why, faced with limited opportunities, some achieved advancement through marriage while others remained nonmobile. The present study concerns a cohort of 134 females, first studied in 1957, who married during the post high school decade. It was found that women who met their husbands after moving to an urban social context were more likely to be mobile than women who met their husbands in a rural setting. When personal attributes were considered, it was found that most women who met their spouses in an urban setting achieved status advancement through marriage irrespective of personal characteristics. In contrast, positive personal attributes were strongly related to an advantageous marriage among the women who met their husbands in a rural context. The only personal attribute that appeared to relate strongly to marriage mobility was intelligence. (KM)