Conventional wisdom aside, high-achieving women are just as likely to get married as all other women, Christine Whelan '99, author of "Why Smart Men Marry Smart Women," said in a talk about her book at the U-Store Wednesday night.
Whelan's findings counter the traditional notion that women with graduate degrees and high-earning jobs are less likely to marry and more likely to divorce. "In fact, high-achieving women marry at the same rates as other women, just a little later and wiser," said Whelan, a New York-based journalist and former editor-in-chief of The Daily Princetonian.
"Why Smart Men Marry Smart Women" holds more good news, both statistical and anecdotal, for women Whelan calls SWANS (Strong Women Achievers, No Spouse). The book includes stories from the personal lives of 100 accomplished men and women Whelan interviewed throughout the United States, in addition to census data and data from national polls.
Ninety percent of high-achieving men want a woman who is as or more intelligent than they are, according to Whelan's findings, which were based on a specially commissioned Harris Interactive survey.
Moreover, three-quarters of men surveyed said that a career and education make women more desirable, while two-thirds of men surveyed said they think smart women make better mothers.
Census data also indicate that married women with careers are just as likely to have children as other women, though they do not have as many children since on average they get married at a later age, Whelan said.
Women with a college degree are half as likely as less educated women to get a divorce during the first 10 years of marriage, Whelan added, saying that this finding inspired the acronym SWANS.
"Swans — the birds — sail alone for the first third of their life, but when they mate, they mate for life," Whelan said.
As late as the 1980 Census, women with graduate degrees were 50 percent less likely to marry and 50 percent less likely to have children. The reasons for higher marriage rates now may lie in upbringing, she said.
Men who are now in their 20s and 30s were generally raised by women who worked in some capacity, so "when men think of a woman who is a wife and mother, they also think of a woman who has a job," Whelan said.
She argued, though, that popular thinking has yet to catch up with the numbers. More than half of women believe their careers hold them back in dating, Whelan's survey found, and many of the women she interviewed admitted to downplaying their career and educational successes when on a date.
Whelan hopes to dispel these notions with her findings, saying she wants to "liberate women to enjoy their single lives."
"If you want to balance a career and a family," Whelan said, "it's looking good for this young generation of women."
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