Similar 'Smarts' Decrease the Risk of Divorce among Married Couples

A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that these days, it's not just about looks when choosing a partner. Study findings revealed that despite stereotypical scenarios, modern men are more likely to marry smarter women and aren't phased by a partner who makes more money.

"Couples in which both individuals have equal levels of education are now less likely to divorce than those in which husbands have more education than their wives," said lead study author Christine Schwartz, an associate professor of sociology at the university, in a news release. "These trends are consistent with a shift away from a breadwinner-homemaker model of marriage toward a more egalitarian model of marriage in which women's status is less threatening to men's gender identity."

For their research, study authors found that couples who married between 2000 and 2004 and had relatively the same educational background were a third less likely to divorce than those in marriages where the men were more educated.

"The relationship between one's educational attainment, marriage formation, and risk of divorce appears to suggest that couples are adapting to the demographic reality that women have more education than men," she added. "Young people today strongly believe in egalitarian marriage - even if they don't always follow it in practice."

For marriages that began in the 1950s, however, findings showed that individuals with equal educational backgrounds were equally as likely to divorce when compared to husbands who received more education.

Furthermore, despite the feminism of the '60s and '70s, preferences for a less-educated wife remained until the 1980s. Researchers found that marriages where a woman was better educated than her husband carried a 34 percent increased risk of divorce than those where the husband was "smarter" or more thoroughly educated. 

"Overall, our results speak against fears that women's growing educational advantage over men has had negative effects on marital stability," Schwartz concluded. 

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the journal American Sociological Review.