London - Weddings between the boss and the secretary could soon be a thing of the past.
Research has found that educational high-flyers are increasingly choosing equally academic partners.
Often they are finding a mate at university instead of meeting one at work – who may have been from different social and academic background and at a different career level.
A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research in the US revealed that of those who married in 2005, nearly half of men with degrees married female graduates, compared with just a quarter in 1960.
They follow in the footsteps of couples who met while studying, including the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who both studied at St Andrews University, and the Obamas, who met training as lawyers.
John Goldthorpe, a sociologist at Oxford University, said: “Over the past 20 years women have caught up with men in the proportion going into higher education. Universities are therefore becoming big mating factories.”
However, experts fear the trend is adding to inequality in household incomes, because successful and low-earning people don’t mix in the way that they used to.
Nearly 60 percent of women only educated to high school level were found to marry men of the same education.
Economics professor Stephen Machin, of University College London, said: “It suggests a polarisation of skills in households. It’s been a driving factor behind inequality and most people would say that’s not good.” - Daily Mail