Why does the woman wear her engagement ring on the third finger of her left hand?

Engagement rings and wedding bands are worn in all Anglo-Saxon countries, i.e. Canada, USA, New Zealand, Australia, and also in many Latin American countries, in France and its many former colonies, in Italy etc. Contrary to a previous writer, the left-handed wedding band is not in the minority and is not confined to the USA. The engagement ring is generally worn on the same hand as the wedding band, except in such countries as Germany, where the engagement ring is worn on the left and then switched to the right after the wedding, there being no difference between the two. For more info. On the difference between wedding bands and engagement rings I recommend going HERE 
http://www.zoara.com/learning_center

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Well, not all women wear their engagement rings or wedding rings on the third finger of their left hand. Most ethnocentric Americans think that that's the way all women around the world wear their rings, but it's actually quite ignorant ... we, meaning Americans, are actually in the minority when it comes to wearing the wedding ring, engagement ring, or wedding band of the third finger of the left hand. Whether the woman wears the ring on the left or right hand is entirely dependent on her culture, country, region or even faith. Besides the United States and the United Kingdom, other countries that share our left hand tradition are Japan, France, Sweden and Italy.... But there are so many other countries that have the tradition of wearing the wedding ring, wedding band or engagement ring on the right hand. I know that most women from Eastern European countries wear their wedding or engagement rings on their right hand. I've heard that the same goes for Spain, India, Germany and Greece. And that's just when it comes to countries. If we're talking about regions within a country, in Belgium it depends on what specific region you're from. If we're talking about religion, apparently orthodox Christians wear the wedding ring or engagement ring on the right hand. The Dutch wear the ring on the left, except for Dutch Catholics who wear them on their right. I studied a semester abroad in Austria and remember my host family making a point of the fact that Austrian Catholics wear their wedding rings and wedding bands on the ring finger of the right hand. The point is, not everyone's like us Americans ... and it would probably do us some good revise our ethnocentric assumptions.

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 Regarding women wearing their engagement rings or wedding bands on their left hands, I've actually heard about the "vena amoris" legend originating with the Romans, not the Egyptians, as is commonly believed ... but the idea is the same, that the vein in the left ring finger ran directly to and therefore connected with the heart, feelings, love.  So clearly the Romans would have been wearing their wedding rings on their left hands.  But it's actually an interesting topic because while we're accustomed to wedding rings, engagement rings and wedding bands being worn on the left ring finger, many cultures and countries have the tradition of wearing them on the right hand.   So this begs the question, how did these cultures/regions of the world come up with custom, and why?  Interestingly enough, the Romans might be at the root of this one too.  I'm writing my thesis for a masters in history on Roman mysticism and recently read about the Roman interpretation of anything left-sided as being negative, and everything having to do with the right, or right side, as having a positive connotation. Essentially these "superstitions" arose from the Latin word "sinestra", meaning left, and "dextra", meaning right ... in addition to English and German, most romantic languages (Spanish, Italian, French) have words of either positive or negative connotations associated with these roots. Think "sinister", "dextrous", etc...

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This custom dates all the way back to ancient Egypt. In ancient Egypt, men gave their wives engagement rings to place on the third finger of their left hands (now called the ring finger). They believed that a “vena amoris” or “vein of love” ran directly from the heart to the top of that finger.

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