The Reversal of the Gender Gap in Education and its Consequences for Family Life

While men tended to receive more education than women in the past, the gender gap in education has reversed in recent decades in most Western and many non-Western countries. We review the literature about the implications for union formation, assortative mating, the division of paid and unpaid work,...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Van Babel, Jan, Schwartz, Christine, Esteve, Albert|||0000-0001-9916-386X
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:201652
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/201652
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1146/annurev-soc-073117-041215
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Fender
Education
Family
Marriage
Divorce
Assortative mating
Descripción
Sumario:While men tended to receive more education than women in the past, the gender gap in education has reversed in recent decades in most Western and many non-Western countries. We review the literature about the implications for union formation, assortative mating, the division of paid and unpaid work, and union stability in Western countries. The bulk of the evidence points to a narrowing of gender differences in mate preferences and declining aversion to female status-dominant relationships. Couples in which wives have more education than their husbands now outnumber those in which husbands have more. While such marriages were more unstable in the past, existing studies indicate that this is no longer true. In addition, evidence for gender display in housework when wives have higher status their husbands has become less common in recent studies. Despite these shifts, other research documents the lasting influence of the breadwinner-homemaker model of marriage.