Study: Wives surpass husbands when it comes to education
The end of the MRS degree?
In an article published last month, researchers found that the number of couples in which the woman has a higher level of education than her male counterpart is growing steadily. Researchers Albert Esteve, Joan Garcia-Roman and Inaki Permanyer led the study, titled "The Gender-Gap Reversal in Education and its Effect on Union Formation: The End of Hypergamy?". They collected data from 138 censuses in 56 countries from 1968 to 2009.
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"Newly released census microdata reveal the nearly worldwide and substantial decline in educational hypergamy (women marrying men with higher educational attainment)…" the study's abstract reveals. It continues:
"Our results show that educational hypergamy is an enduring form of gender inequality in union formation across the countries examined but that it has been decreasing over the last few decades and in some countries has reversed in recent years."
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Basically, fewer women are marrying men who surpass them in terms of education -- and, presumably, how much they earn. In some countries, in fact, it's men who are marrying up.
The researchers found a steep increase in education levels among women in recent years. And that increase also shows that more women than ever are better educated than their husbands. Albert Esteve said of their findings:
"Given this historical inertia, one could consider that the increase in education amongst women would make forming unions more difficult and raise the number of single women. However, what we see is that the composition of couples adapts quite well to these structural changes and that if these changes take place, sooner or later they will have an effect on the marriage market."
Esteve explains that if the trends in education continue, "marrying up" will become completely antiquated. He continued:
"It will be interesting to observe whether this change develops into more equality between men and women in other aspects of their life."
Photo: Jose Luis Pelaez Inc/Getty Images
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Twenty-nine years ago, I was 19 years old and going to college for an associate degree & "this guy" commanded me (yeah, that's right) to marry him. He wanted me to quit college, quit my job, and stay home to have babies. "You're gonna do what I say, and you're gonna marry me!" I definitely had no interest in this Neanderthal (oh, maybe that insults Neanderthals, maybe they were more advanced than this guy), so I figured, if I stay in college, he'll get bored with me and find a new hobby, like some other poor fool girl who will marry him. I said, "I want to finish college first, okay?" He said, "No wife a mine gonna go to no college. You gonna do what you're told, and you're gonna marry me!" I said, "You know, if you talk that way to me, I'm gonna leave you." "You'll never leave me. You can't live five minutes without me. You'll just come crawling back." He only talked like this when there were no other people around. When other people were around, he was a perfect gentleman. I knew if I married him, my life would be hell. I stayed in college. My friends were angry with me for not marrying him, they said, "You are so stupid! You coulda stayed home and he'd pay the bills! Why did you leave him? You don't need college!" I got my associate degree, then went nights and got my bachelor's. I got a good job, then got "downsized." I used the time off to go to paralegal school and got a third college degree. I am so thankful every day that I stayed in college. I have a career and own a home and I have travelled to Europe, Africa, Canada, and other places. I am self-supporting and control my own life. Every day, I thank God that He gave me the common sense to make the right decision. So many girls would be young and gullible with all this romantic nonsense that movies and romance novels put in their silly heads -- I would say a good percentage of girls would be thrilled to marry a guy, even if he was a jerk, because everything in "the media" (books, TV, movies) convince girls that jerks will change and they really love them, yada-yada-freakity-yada... Well, guess what? For the past three decades I've seen a lot of people trapped in rotten hellish marriages.
Girls who are reading this: If someone is a jerk, leave before it's too late. Go to school. Learn a job skill if you can't afford college. Be able to support yourself. And don't be afraid to leave an abusive relationship. I left an abusive man and I thank God every day that I did. Don't let someone manipulate you or control you, even if he keeps saying that he "loves you." If someone loves you, he doesn't make you feel bad about yourself. Don't throw away your future for some guy's false promises that he'll take care of you.
Many women now are very demanding of men and society in general, feel entitled to things,, have a difficult time compromising, competitive to the extreme at work, sports and hobbies, hold onto anger too long. Because of this I prefer to be in a work environment that is more male oriented.
With this in mind, what normal nice guy would want to commit to this personality? These woman end up with the mama boys.
the possibility of a "good" man being able to find a "good" woman these days is hard enough,
the cards are stacked against the working class man that wants to be the man and provide the woman in his life a good life style when the expectations are so much higher these days.
if the man is white, he's totally screwed with all the crap going on with so many in society claiming to be a minority.
i have had more than enough times where people were telling me that i couldn't have the job because i didn't speak a language other than English.
love: friendship, dating, sex & marriage
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