Because foot binding limited women's mobility, making them unable to walk far or even do housework, later "only richer households could afford to raise daughters who could do no productive work." Thus whether a family could afford to raise daughters with bound feet became one of the criteria by which economic status was compared, so that foot binding was no longer simply a matter of sexual attraction.
由於纏足限制了女性的行動能力與範圍，不能出遠門，甚至無法做家事，到後來演變成「中上家庭才有能力供養這種不事生產的閨女」，把家裡養不養得起纏足女兒，變成家世的比較條件之一，纏足再也不單純是性的誘因了。