vogue.com
>It used to be that women were the ones who “married up”—snagging men who were more highly educated and professionally successful than they were, allowing them to step into a higher economic class. But now that women are outpacing men in college enrollment and driving growth in the labor force, there’s been a seesaw effect: According to a new study in the journal Demography, the tables have turned—men are now the ones who are more likely to “marry up.”
>Researchers at the University of Kansas studied Census data between 1990 and 2011 and found that “women’s personal earnings have grown faster than men’s earnings during this time,” due to women increasing their education, and with it, their employment opportunities.
>As a result, the number of highly educated women actually “exceeds the number of highly educated men in the marriage market,” the researchers found, meaning that women are now more likely than before to marry men less educated than they are.
>This shift is notably upending stodgy, traditional ideas about marriage and family—namely, that instead of always seeing men as the breadwinners and the ones who wear the proverbial pants, women are contributing more to family income and becoming the so-called “catches.”
>“Marriage is now becoming more egalitarian and becoming equal,” said lead study author ChangHwan Kim, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Kansas. “If you look at gender dynamics or from a marriage-equality standpoint, that is a really good sign.”
>Case in point, researchers noted that you don’t often hear men complaining about the paradigm shift—because it benefits them so handsomely. “It seems fine for men because their wife is now bringing more income to the household,” Kim said.
>“Men are getting the benefit from women’s progress.” More proof that when women get ahead, everybody wins.
Men of Sup Forums, are you ready to "marry up"?
