No more 'marriage gap' for college-educated women

[pampango]

Source: Washington Post

White women with college degrees are now just as likely to get married as their less-educated counterparts, ending what researchers once thought of as a "marriage penalty" for generations of young women who sought out higher education.

A new report shows that the marriage gap, though once large, turned around for white women starting with those born in the early 1970s. Now ages 35 to 39, these women have been as likely to marry as those who did not graduate from college, according to the report done by the Pew Research Center. For both groups, 84 percent had married at some point before they were 40, according to the analysis of 2008 data.

"It's a historic reversal," said senior researcher Richard Fry, author of the Pew study. "There was a time in the early 20th century when there was a huge marriage gap."

Once, the popular notion was that going to college delayed the age of marriage. Now, across the population, the typical age for marriage is 28, both for those who complete higher education and those who don't take that path or in some cases don't finish. Probing the trend, researchers found that much of this shift has been driven by a declining likelihood of marriage among men and women without college degrees.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/07/AR2010100707211.html

[Rozlee]

1. It was always anti-feminist drivel to begin with.

Made up to scare women into not seeking higher educations. I graduated from college and never believed a word of it; especially after my third marriage.

[Xithras]

2. Changing attitudes in men have a bit to do with it too.

50 years ago, many men shunned "uppity" educated women. They wanted a wife to stay home, clean the house, and raise the kids. Nowadays, most men expect their wives to work. I personally know of two couples who divorced because the wives wanted to stay home after the kids were born, and the husbands freaked out and left. Most educated men nowadays expect their wives to function as an equally contributing partner in their household.

I love the fact that my wife is my intellectual equal in most areas (and smarter than me in a few), and couldn't comprehend the mind-numbing boredom of marrying an uneducated woman who just wanted to dust the house all day.

[David__77]

3. Wow, I would hope couples would talk about these things before committing.

And certainly before having children. That's too bad.

[Xithras]

4. I thought the women were very stupid in both cases.

Seriously. They stood their ground (and one filed for the divorce), because they both had the mentality that "a mothers work should be in the home". The arguments eventually fed an extreme belief that it was better to seek divorce than to "cave" and work.

In both cases, after the divorce, the women were forced to go back to work to support themselves anyway. I'm still clueless as to what they gained from the divorce.

The only fault I lay at the feet of the men, in both cases, is their failure to do exactly what you suggested. Unfortunately, it's very common for people to get married nowadays without ever really talking about major issues like this. They fall for the "love will see us through it" line. Fundamental incompatibilities like this one are pretty hard to ignore though.