(Press-News.org) The number of couples in which the woman has a higher level of university studies than her male partner is growing steadily and in many countries this trend surpasses the opposite situation, which historically has been the predominant. This is the conclusion reached by the Centre for Demographic Studies of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (CED-UAB), which conducted a research in 56 countries to study the effects an increase in education levels amongst women are having on heterosexual relationship patterns. The research also sets the bases to delve deeper into the social dimensions this change in model may represent.
The study conducted by Albert Esteve, Joan Garcia-Roman and Iñaki Permanyer analyses the effects on couples when there are more women than men with university studies. To do this they gathered data from 138 censuses in 56 countries, dating from 1968 to 2009. The research was published in Population Development Review, one of the most prestigious journals dedicated to population studies.
The study concludes that higher education levels in women has a direct effect on union formation. Such is the effect that in countries in which there are more women than men with university studies, the number of couples in which the woman unites "downwards" (with a man with lesser studies) surpasses those who unite "upwards" (with a man with more studies).
Traditionally in heterosexual couples, the dominating pattern existing was the educational hypergamy of the woman, a type of relationship in which the woman marries a man with a higher educational attainment and in which there are important gender differences. In recent years however, an easier access to education for women is altering this model. "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", Albert Esteve states.
The census data used in the study, individual and anonymous, is available at IPUMS (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series), a project by the University of Minnesota, which is creating an enormous international population database consisting of microdata samples. Researchers analysed both married couples and partners living together, creating an index to measure the educational difference between men and women, and another index to measure the prevalence of hypergamy over hypogamy couples when related to education.
With only a few exceptions, there is a steady decrease in the level of educational hypergamy in both advanced and developing countries, although there continues to be significant differences between these countries. At the beginning of the 1970s, "upward" couples surpassed "downward" couples in all 18 countries in which there was census data between 1970 and 1975. At the start of the new century, 26 of the 51 countries registered negative educational hypergamy values. These countries are home to diverse societies, such as France, Jordan, Mongolia, Slovenia and South Africa. In the case of Spain, in 2001 for every 100 hypogamy couples there were 67 hypergamy couples.
It was not possible to include some countries in the study due to lack of data. This includes countries such as Japan, South Korea, or China; very traditional societies in terms of relationships and with high levels of single women among those with higher education levels. Nevertheless, researchers consider that the increase in university women will end up modifying the rules of the game, principally in China, a country in which there are few women and where it is believed that in 2050 there will be 140 female university students for every 100 male university students.
Researchers nevertheless state that the study reveals the universality of a phenomenon previously observed in other countries, such as the United States and Brazil, and amplifies the results, demonstrating that this change is taking place all over the world and can have effects on other dimensions of social life.
If the trends in education continue, prevalence in educational hypergamy will continue to decrease, researchers say. This scenario suggests that the increase in education level amongst women can have important effects on traditional relationship models and represents a step forward in reaching symmetry when forming relationships. "It will be interesting to observe whether this change develops into more equality between men and women in other aspects of their life (decision-making, distribution of home tasks, divorce, fertility, etc.)", Albert Esteve comments.
Theories on couple models have not yet included this new situation. Historically, in opposition to traditional models in which marriage was an alliance between complementary gender roles (the husband providing an income for the family and the wife caring for the home and children), there appeared models in which partners shared both roles (the two-income or bi-active models with regard to the labour market).
Albert Esteve considers that "now we must focus on studying the hypogamy model, not only on educational aspects, but also when the woman is the main income earner which, in these times of crisis, is becoming increasingly the case".
The study calls for more research - from a wider perspective - on the consequences these changes may have in the distribution of gender roles. Will this lead to more equality in relationships? How will each person's expectation affect the relationship? What role is education to play in how people choose their partners? These are some of the questions researchers seek to answer in the future.
### END
Higher education levels in women change relationship patterns
2012-10-31
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Monkeys put off sex by bystanders
2012-10-31
Monkeys shy away from bystanders during copulation, irrespective of the bystanders' gender or rank. The new study, by Anne Overduin-de Vries and her team from the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in the Netherlands, also suggests that sneaky sex is opportunistic rather than a tactical deception i.e. intentional hiding of sexual behavior. Their work is published online in Springer's journal, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.
Sexual competition is highly prevalent in multi-male, multi-female primate groups and may lead to copulations in the absence of interfering ...
Empathy represses analytic thought, and vice versa
2012-10-31
New research shows a simple reason why even the most intelligent, complex brains can be taken by a swindler's story – one that upon a second look offers clues it was false.
When the brain fires up the network of neurons that allows us to empathize, it suppresses the network used for analysis, a pivotal study led by a Case Western Reserve University researcher shows.
How could a CEO be so blind to the public relations fiasco his cost-cutting decision has made?
When the analytic network is engaged, our ability to appreciate the human cost of our action is repressed.
At ...
Ozone's impact on soybean yield: Reducing future losses
2012-10-31
URBANA - People tend to think of ozone as something in the upper atmosphere that protects the earth's surface from UV radiation. At the ground level, however, ozone is a pollutant that damages crops, particularly soybean.
Lisa Ainsworth, a University of Illinois associate professor of crop sciences and USDA Agricultural Research Service plant molecular biologist, said that establishing the exposure threshold for damage is critical to understanding the current and future impact of this pollutant.
"Most of my research is on measuring the effects of ozone on soybean, ...
Unique protein bond enables learning and memory
2012-10-31
AUGUSTA, Ga. – Two proteins have a unique bond that enables brain receptors essential to learning and memory to not only get and stay where they're needed, but to be hauled off when they aren't, researchers say.
NMDA receptors increase the activity and communication of brain cells and are strategically placed, much like a welcome center, at the receiving end of the communication highway connecting two cells. They also are targets in brain-degenerating conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
In a true cradle-to-grave relationship, researchers have found the scaffolding ...
E. coli adapts to colonize plants
2012-10-31
New research from the Institute of Food Research has given new clues as to how some E. coli strains, normally at home in mammalian gastrointestinal tracts, have adopted slightly different transmission strategies, with some being better adapted to live on plants than others.
In the light of recent outbreaks of food poisoning due to contamination of vegetables by dangerous strains of E. coli, this information will be useful to making sure our food remains safe.
E. coli is most at home in the warm, moist, nutrient-rich environment found in the gastrointestinal tract of ...
Off to the Future with a new Soccer Robot
2012-10-31
Computer scientists from the University of Bonn have developed a new robot whose source code and design plan is publicly accessible. It is intended to facilitate the entry into research on humanoids, in particular, the TeenSize Class of the RoboCup. The scientists recently introduced the new robot at the IROS Conference (International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems) in Portugal.
With its white head and black body, "NimbRo-OP" looks almost human. After all, at a height of 95 centimeters, it is almost the size of a small child. Among soccer robots, it counts ...
New tool aims to ensure software security policies reflect user needs
2012-10-31
Researchers from North Carolina State University and IBM Research have developed a new natural language processing tool that businesses or other customers can use to ensure that software developers have a clear idea of the security policies to be incorporated into new software products.
Specifically, the research focuses on access control policies (ACPs), which are the security requirements that software developers need to bear in mind when developing new software. For example, an ACP for a university grading program needs to allow professors to give grades to students, ...
American consumers overvalue US-produced apparel, MU study finds
2012-10-31
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- In today's globalized economy, a large percentage of apparel products are multinational products as raw materials are produced, transported and assembled in different countries. However, consumers have little information about where and to what extent their apparel is produced domestically or overseas. Now, University of Missouri researchers have found that American consumers place a much higher value on apparel produced entirely in the US with US raw materials as opposed to products produced partially or entirely overseas. The value is so high, in fact, ...
Study suggests new way to prevent recurrent ear infections
2012-10-31
Eliminating bacteria's DNA and boosting antimicrobial proteins that already exist may help prevent middle ear infections from reoccurring. These are the findings from a Nationwide Children's Hospital study that examined how an immune defense protein common in the middle ear interacts with a structure meant to protect a colony of bacteria.
The bacterium nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHI) causes a wide range of diseases of both the lower and upper airways, including middle ear infection. NTHI, like most other bacteria, can form a biofilm, a robust community of ...
Finding triggers of birth defects in an embryo heart
2012-10-31
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University have found a way to create three-dimensional maps of the stress that circulating blood places on the developing heart in an animal model – a key to understanding triggers of heart defects.
The team has begun testing the technology to uncover how alcohol, drugs and other factors set off events that result in defects found in newborn humans.
Passing blood cells drag on the endothelial cells that line the growing heart, a phenomenon called shear stress, which has been linked to changes in gene expression that results in defects, ...