Posted on 05/06/2008 8:18:09 PM PDT by blam
It Might Be True That 'Men Marry Their Mothers'
ScienceDaily (May 7, 2008) — Whether a young man's mother earned a college degree and whether she worked outside the home while he was growing up seems to have an effect years later when he considers his ideal wife, according to a study by University of Iowa sociologist Christine Whelan.
High-achieving men -- those who earn salaries in the top 10 percent for their age and/or have a graduate degree -- are highly likely to marry a woman whose education level mirrors their mom's.
Nearly 80 percent of the high-achieving men whose mothers had college degrees married women with college degrees, and 19 percent of them married women with graduate degrees. Of men whose moms had graduate degrees, 62 percent tied the knot with graduate degree holders, and 27 percent said "I do" to women with college degrees.
Sixty-eight percent of high-achieving men agreed with the statement, "Smart women make better mothers."
"Successful men in their 20s and 30s today are the sons of a pioneering generation of high-achieving career women. Their mothers serve as role models for how a woman can be nurturing and successful at the same time," said Whelan, a visiting assistant professor of sociology in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. "One man I interviewed put it like this: 'If your mother is a success, you don't have any ideas of success and family that exclude a woman from working.' This Mother's Day, I think we should thank those moms for leading the way toward gender equality for a younger generation."
Whelan is the author of "Why Smart Men Marry Smart Women" (Simon & Schuster, 2006), the first book to shatter the myth that success and spinsterhood go hand in hand.
With UI graduate student Christie Boxer, Whelan continues to analyze data from a Harris Interactive survey of more than 3,700 Americans conducted for her book in January and May 2006. The January survey included a nationally representative group of 1,629 high-achieving men and women ages 25-40. The May survey involved a nationally representative group of 2,073 adult Americans.
The researchers discovered that 72 percent of mothers of high-achieving men worked outside the home after they had children. Among those men, three-quarters agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "Men are more attracted to women who are successful in their careers." Men who grew up with working moms were almost twice as likely to marry a woman who makes $50,000 or more per year.
"These young men saw their mothers as smart women who could choose to work outside the home, and now that they're making decisions about what they want in a wife, it seems that they are choosing similar types of women," Boxer said.
Sixty-two percent of high-achieving single men disagreed with the statement "Women who are stay-at-home parents are better mothers than women who work outside the home." Almost three-quarters of the high-achieving men disagreed with the statement, "It is usually better for everyone involved if the man is the achiever outside the home and the woman takes care of the home and family."
The study reinforces findings from others in the field: "Younger men are much more egalitarian about marriage in general. They grew up with working mothers. Fifty-four million women work and an awful lot of those women are mothers. Their sons aren't looking for 'Leave It to Beaver' in their own house," said researcher Randi Minetor, author of "Breadwinner Wives and the Men They Marry."
Adapted from materials provided by University of Iowa Health Sciences.
Especially if they’re named Oedipus.
kids have mothers nowadays?
Intelligence matters. Best available current science is intelligence if about 50/50 environment/genetics. Smart men want their children to have a shot at doing well.
If you put a smart man in a room with the following women:
1) Astrophysicist
2) Investment Banker
3) Real Estate Mogul
He’ll pick the one with the biggest b**bs.
First thought that came to my mind when I read the headline … ;-)
Q: “Why Smart Men Marry Smart Women”
A: They’re not boring.
C’mon. Men aren’t like that. No, no, no, no...well, yes.
I was always terrified of ending up with someone like my mom.
And I remember they still did all the cooking, cleaning, and tending to the children, too. I always was amazed at how the men expected their wives to do everything, and how the women went along with it.
Ironically, my husband asked me to stop working because my job was interfering with his. Once I resigned, he was able to focus more on his career and eventually bring in more income than we ever did together.
Shew...I couldnt agree more...my wife is alot more like my grandmother...
I mean...I love my mom and all....but...*shudder*...I wouldnt want to be married to a woman like her...
Of course they learned from their fathers as well...marry a co-breadwinner and it’ll make your role as provider a lot easier.
Well this is interesting...but I cannot agree based on what my brother did...My mom was an RN ( surgical supervisor) and my dad an MD ( general surgeon). My mom gave up her career when we 3 monkeys came along..but she was determined and organized and did things when they needed doing. Maybe that was her training as 3rd oldest of 11 and growning up on a farm..anyway. Anyway, mom did not wait for dad to dig a post hole she did it and she planted the garden and cut the grass and kept the house etc etc etc...but my brother married a girl who was really small and thought she was a princess and to this day gets everyone to do every thing for her...if she had to dig a hole she couldn’t do it... so go figure,,,,
Maybe she married her dad, huh?
oh forgot to say she is older than my brother...wonder what that means?
Ha! I am nothing like my mother-in-law. She can do anything. I am completely flawed. But, my husband does treat me like he thinks I am his mother when he keeps asking me to do his laundry and where his clothes are.
Hey...(sticking up for fellow moms everywhere) you two watch it! Don’t make me have to pull this thread over and discipline you both...!!!
“Hey...(sticking up for fellow moms everywhere) you two watch it! Don’t make me have to pull this thread over and discipline you both...”
Oooook mom....hey..can I have a few bucks?
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