Bad news and good news, people. On the one hand that Mad-Men style career move of marrying a dashing young executive to secure your future (and your bank balance) isn't an option any more. On the other, it's because the old-school gender imbalance is evening out - as far more young women go to university (and therefore high-income earning jobs) than ever before.
That does mean though, that what university you go to - and who you choose to snog on a grimy dancefloor - might have more importance than ever before. New research by the National Bureau of Economic Research in America, which is now being replicated in the UK has found a significant rise in 'positive assertive mating,' which means that well-educated people are increasingly pairing off to form ‘power couples’ at university. Gulp.
John Goldthorpe, an emeritus fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, who specialises in social mobility is behind the research. He claims that it's now it’s harder than ever to meet a partner outside your peer group and the rising number of women in higher education has a big role to play in the changing trends. ‘If you go back to the 1960s you would have a big sex difference – the nurse marrying the surgeon, the businessman marrying the secretary,' he says. ‘Over the past 20 years women have caught up with men in the proportion going into higher education. They are going in their mating years and therefore universities are becoming big mating factories.’
Big mating factories? We could have told you that for free. As for the power couple thing? If you have to ask, you’re not. But you probably know a few - they’re the only people you know who can afford to go on long-haul holidays, never seem to run out of money before the end of the month and go for dinner on a Wednesday night ‘because they can’t be bothered to cook.’ They make you feel about nine.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.