Women Still Most Want to Marry Men With Money

choi

(1) The marriage market | Got to Have a JOB; Women still most want to marry men with money. Economist, Sept 27, 2014.
www.economist.com/news/united-st ... -money-got-have-job

Note:
(a) "'A man like that is hard to find, but I can’t get him off my mind,' lamented the female vocalists of ABBA."

Money Money Money
www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/abba/moneymoneymoney.html

is a 1976 song.

(b) "A new study from the Pew Research Centre * * * finds[:] Fully 78% of American women who have never been married say it is 'very important' that their future spouse has a 'steady job.' By comparison, only 46% of men mind much what their future spouse does for a living."
(i) Wendy Wang and Kim Parker, Record Share of Americans Have Never Married; As values, economics and gender patterns change. Social & Demographic Trends project, Pew Research Center, Sept 24, 2014.
www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/09/ ... have-never-married/

Quotations from this report is reproduced in the next posting dubbed (2).
(ii) The paper explains a puzzling statement in the Economist article: "Overall 20% of Americans 25 or older, the highest share ever, have never said 'I do.'”

That is, "the highest share ever" in AMERICA'S history.

(c) "In 1960 young, never-married women were spoilt for choice. For every 100 of them aged 25-34, there were 139 young, never-married men with jobs vying for their attention. In 2012 there were just 91. For some groups, the gap is much bigger. Young never-married black women outnumber young never-married black men with jobs by a startling two-to-one (see chart)."

Together with the legend in the chart, you will see in these comparisons, men gotta have jobs to be counted HERE, but not women who, to be counted, need only in the age bracket and never married.

choi

(2) Wendy Wang and Kim Parker, Record Share of Americans Have Never Married; As values, economics and gender patterns change. Social & Demographic Trends project, Pew Research Center, Sept 24, 2014.
www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/09/ ... have-never-married/

Quote:

(a) "But the survey also finds that, among the never married, men and women are looking for distinctly different qualities in a potential mate. Never-married women place a great deal of importance on finding someone who has a steady job—fully 78% say this would be very important to them in choosing a spouse or partner. For never-married men, someone who shares their ideas about raising children is more important in choosing a spouse than someone who has a steady job.

"Never-married adults—whether male or female—place a much lower priority on finding a partner who shares their moral and religious beliefs, has a similar educational pedigree or comes from the same racial or ethnic background.

(b) “Labor force participation among men—particularly young men—has fallen significantly over the past several decades. In 1960, 93% of men ages 25 to 34 were in the labor force; by 2012 that share had fallen to 82%. And among young men who are employed, wages have fallen over the past few decades. For men ages 25 to 34, median hourly wages have declined 20% since 1980 (after adjusting for inflation). Over the same period, the wage gap between men and women has narrowed. In 2012, among workers ages 25 to 34, women’s hourly earnings were 93% those of men. In 1980, the ratio was less than 70%.

(c) “Despite the survey finding that few Americans say it is very important to them to find someone of the same racial or ethnic background to marry, the vast majority of new marriages (85%) take place between people of the same race and ethnicity.

(d) “The relationship between education and marital status has changed considerably over time, and the patterns among men and women have reversed. * * * Men with a high school education or less are much more likely than men with advanced degrees [ie, postgraduate degrees] to have never married (25% vs. 14%). For women, the opposite trend has occurred. In 1960, women with advanced degrees (31%) were about four times as likely to have never married as women with a high school education or less (7%). These educational gaps have closed over time, and today women of different educational backgrounds are almost equally likely to have never been married.

(e) "Other key findings:
* * *
• Previously married adults show less interest in marriage than do never-married adults.
• Never-married and previously married [but now un-married (‘single’ people may cohabitate)] adults have different demographic profiles.
* * *
• Among never-married young adults with post-graduate degrees, women outnumber men by a large margin. There are 77 never-married men ages 25 to 34 with post-graduate degrees for every 100 women with similar educational credentials. Among never-married young adults with a bachelor’s degree, the male-to-female ratio is 102 men for every 100 women.

choi

(3) The full Pew report (with the same authorship and title/subtitle; total 46 pages):

www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/20 ... rried-Americans.pdf

Quote:

(a) at page 16: “Box 1: Cohabitation in the US.  Many never married young adults are not ‘single.’ According to Pew Research analysis of the March 2013 Current Population Survey, about 24% of never married Americans ages 25 to 34 currently live with a partner. According to data from the National Center for Health Statistics, among women who first cohabited at age 25 to 29, their premarital cohabitation relationship typically lasted about a year and a half (17 months). Research finds that after one year, about three in ten young adults get married, 9% break up the relationship and 62% continue cohabiting. By the third year, nearly six-in-ten (58%) married, 19% broke up and 23% remained in the relationship.*  According to the same data from the National Center for Health Statistics, nearly half of women ages 15 to 44 (48%) have cohabited with a partner (before marriage). Women with less than a high school diploma (70%) are more likely to have lived with an unmarried partner than those with a college degree or higher (47%). Among women who are in a cohabiting relationship, college educated women are more likely than their counterparts who do not have a high school diploma to get married after three years (53% vs. 30%).

(b) at page 21 commenting on the first bar chart (heading: Never-Married Women Want a Spouse with a Steady Job) in (2):

“Racial and Ethnic Divisions[:] Among all adults--married or unmarried--there are some significant differences across racial and ethnic groups on which traits are most desirable in a spouse or partner. Whites (59%) are significantly less likely than blacks (77%) or Hispanics (74%) to place a high priority on finding a spouse or partner with a steady job. Whites are also much less likely than blacks or Hispanics to say that finding a spouse or partner with at least as much education as they have is very important to them. Only about one in four (23%) whites say this is very important compared with at least four in ten blacks and Hispanics.

My comment:
(a) One possible explanation for quotation (b) is that whites are richer, generally speaking, than blacks or Hispanics, so whites do not have to think over the economic consequences of finding a spouse or partner who is unemployed and/or less educated.
(b) One paragraphs in the Economist article (see (1)) is unaccounted for in (2). The paragraph is reproduced here:

“The raw ratio of bachelors to bachelorettes varies with age. There are 118 unmarried 25-year-old men for every 100 single women, since women are more likely to marry older partners. Around the age of 40, the ratio is roughly even. From then on, the surplus of men turns into a deficit: by the age of 64 there are only 62 unmarried men, with or without jobs, for every 100 unmarried women.

(c) That paragraph comes from the figure in page 28 of the full report.
(d) Otherwise, there is no need to read the rest of the full report.