Will women marry down?
18th April 2011
Kay Hymowitz reveals a dirty little secret.
Not so long ago, highly educated women were a spinster class; men with degrees looked for wives whose talents ran towards cooking the dinner roast and doing the children’s laundry, not writing briefs. No longer. Women with advanced degrees are now as likely to marry as their less-educated sisters (though they are less likely to have children) in large part because educated men are choosing them over secretaries or nurses. Today about 55% of married couples have the same educational level.
Educated men and women are drawn to spouses they think will help them produce the children likely to thrive in the contemporary knowledge-based economy. That means high IQ, ambitious, and organized kids who will do their homework and take a lot of AP courses. The preference for alpha kids is the reason there is a luxury market for Ivy League egg and sperm donors. It also explains why, though we don’t have solid research distinguishing between elite and State U mating choices, Ms. Harvard will probably not accept a proposal from Mr. Florida State. The economist Greg Mankiw has quipped that “Harvard is probably the world’s most elite dating agency.” A glance at the New York Times nuptial pages suggests he’s right.
April 18th, 2011 at 23:38
But the women from the elite schools…..how can I put this delicately? An acquaintance who attended an Ivy League school once joked that they let the school out for the summer so the girls could graze.
Now that’s certainly a broad statement (no pun intended), and there certainly are fabulous looking women from those schools. On the other hand, I suspect Florida State has more “babes” than the entire Ivy League.
Graffiti in the math building restroom (from the ancient times when I attended university) read: “Brains X Beauty = Constant”.
April 19th, 2011 at 00:44
@RealRick, at law schools that trend now between 52-60% female, there’s a saying: “The odds are good but the goods are odd.”
April 19th, 2011 at 03:34
Case in point: Hillary Clinton. Take a look at pictures of what she looked like back then. Ol’ Bill really would hump anything that stood still.