The institution of marriage has undergone significant changes in recent decades as women have outpaced men in education and earnings growth. These unequal gains have been accompanied by gender role reversals in both the spousal characteristics and the economic benefits of marriage.
A larger share of men in 2007, compared with their 1970 counterparts, are married to women whose education and income exceed their own, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of demographic and economic trend data. A larger share of women are married to men with less education and income.
Even more dramatic was the difference in unmarried women and unmarried men between 1970 and 2007.
Of course women started far behind men,
so they are still catching up, economically.
The rather bland general summary of the Pew report fails to capture the surprising extent of how big and dramatic these profound social changes have been. When 22% of men are now married to women who earn more than they do, versus a mere 4% back in 1970, that’s more than a fivefold increase. That’s huge. It’s colossally significant. It’s bound to have far-reaching ramifications, which we’ve probably only begun to glimpse.
Women’s gains in the area of education are far less dramatic, but still impressive.
Still, one of the more hidden lessons here is the easy-to-overlook factor that there has been a sharp decline in the number of less affluent people marrying. That’s rather ominous, it seems to me. I mean, there is a disturbing general trend in our culture to abstain from marriage, i.e., the pervasive acceptance of cohabitation as if it were a normal or healthy thing. Of course, it’s not.
But this study underlines how this disturbing trend is especially common among the less educated and poorer segments of the American population. That’s scary. Not least because, as we all know, failure of parents to get married hasn’t prevented massive numbers of children from being born out of wedlock. With all the immense social problems that come with that lamentable and devastating social reality.
David Handy+