London - Women who prefer brainy boyfriends are less likely to be interested in male-dominated careers such as engineering, a study suggests.
Instead, they gravitate towards more nurturing professions such as teaching and social work - because they seem more intent on playing a “traditional” gender role.
Meanwhile women with little desire for a clever partner are more likely to be interested in working for a conventionally male profession, researchers discovered.
The findings will fuel concerns over the low number of women pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) - amid fears girls down-play their skills in these subjects to appear more attractive.
A team from the University at Buffalo in the US examined the dating preferences of more than 900 participants, and found that women were more likely to look for a smarter partner than men. The more seriously women felt about this, the more traditional they were about gender roles.
The researchers then tested the maths skills of the participants before analysing how interested they were in the subject while they thought of their dream partner. The study, published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, revealed that the women who were most driven to find a smarter man appeared to be the poorest at maths and the least interested in STEM careers.
Study author Professor Lora Park said: “What we found is that not all women react equally to these romantic goals.
“Women who had a traditional preference of wanting to date someone smarter than themselves were the ones who distanced themselves the most from STEM fields.”
Prof Park added: “In general terms, women have made many advances, but in certain fields of STEM they haven’t made that much progress.
“I was surprised by the fact that some women have this preference - but I wasn’t surprised that this led to worse outcomes in these masculine fields.”
The researchers said that women on the hunt for an intelligent man could be limiting their STEM talents either “strategically” or subconsciously to seem attractive.
Figures from the Wise Campaign, which aims to get more women into maths and science careers, reveal that women make up just one in seven of the STEM work force in Britain. Concerns have been raised that girls are dropping the subjects at an early age, which can limit their earning potential as these areas are potentially lucrative.
Daily Mail