Converging Preferences: Relative Education and Relationship Quality.

• In Event: 3531 - Variation in Sexual and Romantic Relationships by Socioeconomic Status

Abstract

The reversal of the gender gap on education (RGE) has reconfigured the marriage market leading more men than ever before to marry up in terms of education. Despite a large literature investigating how partners’ relative education relates to their risk of separation, stability trends do not capture men’s and women’s perceptions about the quality of their relationships, which may differ. This study is the first to assess the consequences of the RGE on men and women’s perceptions of relationship quality. Competing theories point in different directions: (1) a lack of incentives to change intimate relationships; (2) men not liking being less educated than their female partners; (3) partners with more resources being more satisfied with their relationships; (4) women reporting lower levels of relationship quality than men; and (5) men’s mating preferences becoming similar to those of women. Using data from the U.S. representative survey ‘How Couple Meet and Stay Together’ (2009), I study the association between relative education and men and women’s perceptions of their relationship quality on different-sex couples. After controlling for all the factors associated with relationship quality, relative education and gender remain its significant predictors. Both women and men report higher relationship quality when their partners are more educated than them, equal satisfaction when they are equally educated, and lower satisfaction when they are more educated than their partners. Whether this can be interpreted as a weakening of the male-dominant status norm in different-sex relationships, remains an open question.

Author

• Maria Ines Martinez Echague