college educated women more likely to stay married

[Amby 490]

A woman with a college education may be less likely to tie the knot than her less-educated counterparts, but once she's married this college grad is more likely to stay that way, according to two economists.

The finding, based on a review of research from 1950 to 2008, also reveals changes over time in who is getting married and having kids and why. Historically, women with more education have been the least likely to marry and have children, but this marriage gap has eroded as marriage and remarriage rates for women with a college degree relative to those with less education have risen.

In fact, college-educated women now marry later, have fewer children, are less likely to view marriage as "financial security," are happier in their marriages and are the least likely to divorce.

Betsey Stevenson and Adam Isen, both of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, prepared this review for the Council on Contemporary Families, a non-profit organization that provides information to the public on American families.

Here are some of the highlights:

• By age 40, college-educated white women are more likely to be married than other women, many of whom have already divorced.
  
• College-educated women who are unmarried at age 40 are twice as likely to marry in the next 10 years as unmarried 40-year-olds with just a high school degree.
  
• African-American women who have graduated from college or completed some college are more likely to marry than less-educated groups of black women.
  
• At age 40, 86 percent of college-educated white women have married, compared with 90 percent of women with some college, 88 percent of high school graduates, and 81 percent of high school dropouts.
  
• In 1950, only 74 percent of white female college graduates had married by age 40, compared with 92 percent of women who had completed some college, 90 percent of high school graduates, and 93 percent of high-school dropouts.
  

Times are changing

The economists found that marriage rates rose for all women between 1950 and 1960, but leveled off for women without a college degree in the 1960s. Marriage rates of college-educated women continued to rise until 1980, closing much of the educational gap in marriage.

In the 1980s, marriage rates for all women began to fall, though college-educated women are the only group of women whose marriage rates in the 21st century are higher than they were at any point in the 1950s.

For the never-married, educated woman who hopes to marry, but wants to wait for "Mr. Right," you're in luck: The average age of first marriage has been rising.

In the past, a woman who was unmarried at age 35 or 40 was unlikely to ever marry. Today, 15 percent of all women who are unmarried at age 40 will marry in the next 10 years. That number increases to 20 percent for college-educated women.

http://www.livescience.com/culture/educate...age-100126.html

[DEDixon 39]

i distinctly remember that they said the same thing about women with no degree - it was probably 10 years ago that i read it (or maybe i heard this on Oprah?). they (whoever they are... i'm not sure) said college educated women can stand on their own so they are much more likely to separate and divorce. women who are not educated, along with their husbands, depend on their combined income so they are much more likely to stay married.

[Mononoke28 135]

I agree, we no longer depend on a man to survive so we can make better choices and for the right reasons.

Diana

[Jenn! 918]

I agree, we no longer depend on a man to survive so we can make better choices and for the right reasons.

Diana

A concept many men find threatening.

[Safari 0]

I used to recite the lines way back in grade school:

"What is an educated man? Is he the man who has read a lot?"

And to think that Madam Cleo and Jose had to throw bread to each other yesterday running around the word "uneducated."

[DEDixon 39]

A concept many men find threatening.

A concept many men find relieving.... finally getting the monkey off our back.

[ChuckandRhean 0]

Gone are the days when only men dominates the workforce and marital relationship as well. Women ,in this present times,are wiser, independent, self-sufficient and competitive. Well-educated women aim high in terms of career advancement,and tend to have high expectations caring for their own family .

Id say women who've college degrees,MsD and PhDs are most likely pick their first man for last.

[natty bumppo 297]

A concept many men find threatening.

yup ... that would be marriage

[jundp 191]

Pshaw I say. You can find a study to support anything....

[Gemmie 142]

Hmm, I would say this study is a bit of a fluke.

I believe educated women remarry MORE because of their independence and lack of tolerance for marital problems; whereas uneducated women tend to stay married because of financial stability and children.

I say children because in my personal experience, none of the females that went on to get a degree (from my high school) are married or have children, and the ones that didn't go to college ALL have children at a young age. In fact, whenever I catch up with the women from high-school that aren't educated, the first thing they ask me isn't about how college is/was, it's "when are you having a baby?"

Edited January 26, 2010 by Gemmie

[Nessa 23]

i guess charles is stuck with me forever

[FortLaudy 10]

I agree with this. College-educated woman do marry later and have kids much later or not at all, atleast from what I see in my circle of friends, none of them had kids before age 26 atleast, most around 30, only ones I know of that have kids around my age group (from high school etc.) who had no college education had kids at young age, before age 23. Yes, we can be independant and not merely settle for who can take care of us financially the best like back in the day, but marry someone who might not be as rich but hot, young and fun-loving... hehehe. I like it.

[Ban Hammer 13,643]

i guess charles is stuck with me forever

now that you know how to shoot a pistol, yes.