By Ben Spencer, Science Editor of The Sunday Times. Excerpts:
"The young pretty women who seek to “marry up” for money and status, from the Bennet sisters in Pride and Prejudice to Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, have been a persistent theme throughout literature. But this, research has established, is a myth.
“It is burnt into people’s perceptions,” said Professor Gregory Clark, an economic historian at Southern Denmark University.
The concept of the upwardly marrying wife is so well established in our public consciousness that social scientists have a name for it: hypergamy. The theory is based on the idea that while men look for physical attractiveness and youth in a partner, women are far more interested in social status."
"But Clark is adamant: “The data is pretty clear — it’s not happening.”
Working with Professor Neil Cummins of the London School of Economics, Clark analysed data from 33 million marriages and 67 million births in England between 1837 and 2021. Marriage certificates throughout this period included the “rank or profession” of the fathers of both the bride and groom, allowing the academics to track social mobility over time. (Only since May 2021 have mothers been included on marriage certificates in England.)
The researchers, whose work is published in the scientific journal PLOS One, concluded: “There is no significant hypergamy by women in English marriage throughout 1837–2021.”"
"Clark said the results suggest class continues to override all other considerations when it comes to finding a spouse. “The astonishing thing for us is that the same kind of matching has been going on since 1837 till now. And there is other evidence that it goes back far earlier.""“But when it comes down to business, in marriage what seems to be dominant is the social status of the partners.”"
"he has found similar trends in Scandinavia. “They’re matching just as strongly by social class,”"
See also Hypergamy reconsidered: Marriage in England, 1837-2021.
"Abstract
It is widely believed that women value social status in marital partners more than men, leading to female marital hypergamy ("marrying up"), and more female intergenerational social mobility. Using evidence from more than 33 million marriages and 67 million births in England 1837-2021 we show that within this era there was never significant hypergamous marriage by women. The average status of women's fathers equaled that of their husbands' fathers. For marriages 1912-2007 the average social status of female surnames equaled that of male. This was true also for parent surnames of children. Consistent with this, there was no differential tendency in England of men and women to marry by family status. There is also ancillary evidence that physical attraction cannot have been the significant determinant of matching in marriages in any period 1837-2021, based on the very strong correlation observed in underlying social status for marital partners throughout these years."
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