Record number of educated women are ‘marrying down’
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A record number of American women are “marrying down,” tying the knot with a husband who is less educated than they are, according to a new study.
Nearly 21% of married women in 2012 were better educated than their spouses, a threefold jump from 1960, according to the Pew Research Center. By contrast, a bit less than 20% of men had more formal education than their wives.
In the more than half-century that Pew has tracked the issue, this is the first time that a higher percentage of women than men have married down.
The dynamic is due partly to the well-chronicled fact that women have surpassed men in college graduation rates in the last two decades.
Among college-educated newlyweds, 39% of women pledged their undying devotion to a non-grad. Only 26% of men did the same.
Even with their superior education, however, women aren’t necessarily marrying down when it comes to income, according to the report.
About 58% of better-educated women earned less than their husbands. Only 39% of women earned a higher salary.
Follow Walter Hamilton on Twitter @LATwalter
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