Study Links Divorce Rates, Differing Education Levels

A Yale University study found women who married less-educated men were 50% more likely to divorce, but the divorce rate for men who married less-educated women did not change, a sociologist said Friday.

“I think this points to an implicit sexism in relationships, even today,” said Neil G. Bennett, an associate professor of sociology.

Bennett’s team of researchers surveyed 3,500 women under 50 between March, 1987, and May, 1988. He reported his preliminary findings at a recent meeting of the American Sociological Assn. in San Francisco.

Three years ago, Bennett conducted a study that found women over 30 have only a slim chance of marrying.

“I’m trying to get a better idea of how marriage works, what factors are involved in a woman’s decision to get divorced or stay married,” Bennett said.

“Many men and women have not been socialized to accept the notion of an educationally more-accomplished wife,” he said.

Bennett said the researchers were surprised by their findings.

“We had expected that when a couple brings a different educational background to the marriage, no matter who had the higher education, you might expect higher levels of divorce,” Bennett said.

“But what we found was that only with those couples where the wife had more education was there a greater level of divorce, not the reverse,” he said.

The researchers found no difference between women married before 1973 and after 1973, which suggested sexism in relationships has not changed in two decades, Bennett said.

“I’m sure we’ve advanced in the last couple of decades but not in that respect,” Bennett said.

The study also found that women who married younger men or men of a different religion also had a nearly 50% higher chance of getting divorced than women who married men of the same religion, or of the same age or slightly higher age.

“I found that whether it was a difference in age, religion or education, there was an equally strong negative impact on marriage stability,” Bennett said.

The study found that having children did not exacerbate the problems, but rather the birth of a first child provided more stability to a relationship, Bennett said.

“Women find it much more difficult to leave marriages after the first child, so that stability might not be for good reasons,” he said.