Friday, April 29, 2011

Hypergamy in education

The intermediate term consequences of this devotion to educational hypergamy should be interesting, considering that women now make up nearly 60 percent of college graduates:
For many, a 4-year college after high school is simply a given. They don't live in a world where there are other options. For many, it would have been hard to imagine dating a man without a graduate level education, let alone a Bachelor's. It isn't to say people with more education are "better," but as far as raising children is concerned, for some, education is as important to me as religion is to many. For them, marrying a man who thinks it's OK to not go to school would be akin to being a devout Christian married to an Orthodox Jew. It wouldn't work.
In other words, women with less education will be much more likely to find men and breed. This is one of several reasons female education is negatively correlated with reproductive fitness. But the attitude is understandable. After all, what could be more appealing to women than a 30 year-old Starbucks barrista with a useless PhD. It's always interesting to see when social signifiers fail to keep pace with reality.

4 comments:

Magnolia, Tx Tom said...

Plenty of cats and dogs in the shelters. Women with degrees should have an ample selection.

realmatt said...

I don't know anyone who became "well-rounded" and intelligent because they went to college. The ones who are, were that way before they received their overpriced useless degrees.

Someone intelligent enough to get the most out of a university is already intelligent enough to be successful without going to one.

LP2021 Bank of LP Work in Progress said...

The article reeked of mother henning when instructing their daughters in dating. Terrible 'well meaning' advice.

Earlier in the week a Keynesian economist was on cspan saying that many employable men are less educated today and cannot find work. The next thing out he said was the need for more education, not jobs, but more education to compete.

Pablo said...

Once guys understand that the only real reason they should ever marry is to build a family, the worth of college-educated women will plummet. A 30 year old woman starting a family after years at college and a career of some sort? Not ideal, and we all know it.

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