Educational homogamy in Ireland and Britain

Trends and Patterns

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2139130
AutoresB Halpin (0000-0003-2146-5926, University of Limerick, autor de correspondencia), Tak Wing Chan (0000-0001-7325-945X, University of Oxford)
Año2003
Volumen54
Número4
Páginas473-495
Fecha de publicación2003-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaBritish Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0007-1315 • E-ISSN: 1468-4446
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1468-4446.2003.00473.x
PMID14660255
OpenAlexW2170960666
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas38
Referencias citadas16

This paper examines the pattern of educational homogamy in Ireland and Britain. Using contemporary data on recent marriages from the early 1970s through to the mid-1990s, we show that these two countries share a broadly similar pattern of educational homogamy, which is quasi-symmetric in character, with no tendency for women to marry up over and above that which can be attributed to the gender difference in educational attainment. In the 1970s, the strength of homogamy was much weaker in Ireland than in Britain. But we discern a clear inter-country difference in how the net strength of homogamy has changed over time. While it has declined in Britain since the 1970s, in Ireland the strength of homogamy has first increased and then levelled off. Our findings are inconsistent with the inverted U-shaped relationship between economic development and homogamy reported by Smits, Ultee and Lammers (1998) - an argument premised on secular change in the criteria of spouse selection. Instead, our results are better understood in terms of Mare's (1991) life course argument that homogamy is inversely related to the time-gap between school departure and first marriage

Argument (complex analysis · Assortative mating · Character (mathematics · Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economics · Educational attainment · Population · Sociology · Spouse · Demography · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Gender Studies · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Mathematics · Medicine