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Title: Mate Selection in America: Do Spouses' Incomes Converge When the Wife Has More Education?
Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis
Publication Year: 2016
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Abstract: The reversal of the gender gap in education has reshaped the U.S. marriage market and could have far-reaching consequences for marriage and family lives. As women increasingly marry men with less education than themselves, does this imply greater economic gender equality in marriage? My dissertation takes a life course approach to answer this question. First, I examine gender asymmetry in educational and income assortative mating patterns among newlyweds. I use log-linear models to analyze data from the 1980 U.S. Census and the 2008-2012 American Community Surveys. I find that between 1980 and 2008-2012, educational assortative mating reversed from a tendency for women to marry up to a tendency for women to marry down in education, whereas the tendency for women to marry men with higher incomes than themselves persisted. Moreover, in both time periods, the tendency for women to marry up in income was greater among couples in which the wifes education level equals or surpasses that of the husband than among couples in which the wife is less-educated than the husband. The findings suggest that men and women continue to form marriages in which the wife's socioeconomic status does not exceed that of the husband.
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Authors: Qian, Yue
Institution: The Ohio State University
Department: Graduate Program in Sociology
Advisor: Zhenchao Qian
Degree: Doctor of Philosophy
Publisher Location: Columbus, OH
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Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Education, Family and Marriage, Gender
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