Global Trend: Educated Women With Less-Educated Partners

Over the past few decades, there has been dramatic growth in the number of countries where significant numbers of college-educated women either marry or live with less-educated men, according to new research by the Center for Demographic Studies of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Historically, it has been rare for countries to see many men end up with better-educated women, but that has changed for a variety of reasons, including greater educational attainment of women. The growth in the number of relationships in which women partner "downward" educationally is seen in a range of countries -- Western and non-Western, developed and developing -- the research found.