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Title: Educational Inequality, Homogamy, and Status Exchange in Black‐White Intermarriage: A Comment on Rosenfeld
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2010
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DOI: 10.1086/649050
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Abstract: Exchange theories of mate selection argue that persons who have a lower status than their partner in one respect tend to have a higher status than their partner in another. A relative disadvantage in one domain is “exchanged” for a relative advantage in another domain. The hypothesis has been applied to several different pairs of vertically ordered characteristics, such as education and physical attractiveness, occupation and education, and parental occupational status and own occupational status. When applied to socioeconomic status and race, the hypothesis has been controversial, largely because race is not a vertically ordered status characteristic. The hypothesis is nevertheless important because if status exchange does occur in racially mixed couples, it can be regarded as evidence that in the marriage market—and presumable also in society at large—race is treated as a hierarchical variable. For that reason, status exchange may tell us something about the degree of racial prejudice in society. Moreover, an increase in mixed‐race couples cannot simply be regarded as a sign that the color line is fading if such marriages remain characterized by exchange. The hypothesis was originally presented by classic sociologists like Kingsley Davis (1941) and Robert Merton (1941) but it has never been popular. There have been many theoretical critiques of exchange and several attempts have been made to empirically refute the hypothesis. “A Critique of Exchange Theory in Mate Selection” by . . .
Url: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/649050
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Authors: Kalmijn, Matthijs
Periodical (Full): American Journal of Sociology
Issue: 4
Volume: 115
Pages: 1252-1263
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Education, Family and Marriage, Race and Ethnicity
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