2013 Theses Master's

Marriage and Hypogamy: The effects of Hyper/Hypogamy on Female Marital Happiness and Divorce

Rafetto, Anthony R.

Since the 1980s a reverse gender gap has emerged in post-secondary completion, with women obtaining Bachelor’s degrees at increasingly higher rates than men. Many suggest this creates a smaller market of marriageable men. Using IPUMS census data for female respondents, I find that as relative education levels increase for women, educational hypogamy has not increased drastically but divorce rates have increased and marriage has become less common. I also find that educational hypogamy has a negative association with marital happiness, and also may have a negative association on the likelihood of getting divorced, while educational hypergamy seems to have a positive association. The effects of age on the model were not very pronounced. Work hypogamy, meanwhile, is associated with an increased likelihood of divorce. It is likely that work hypogamy among women, as it is much rarer than educational hypogamy, is still stigmatized in some way.