[An American In Dairyland]

Women, by contrast, did not show a marked difference in their attraction to men who might work above or below them.

It is a well known fact that women only want to "marry up" that is, to men who earn more than they do. This is why professional women (doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc.) often "can't find" a "proper" mate.

It is men who are willing to marry down (marry women who earn less than they do or are in a "lower" social class)like the Rockefeller who married a family maid.

[lentulusgracchus]

It is a well known fact that women only want to "marry up" that is, to men who earn more than they do. This is why professional women (doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc.) often "can't find" a "proper" mate.

Woman's road to power and glory: marry up, wait him out, inherit the earth.

A variant on this theme, among black women, is "where are all the good black men?" Memorialized in Waiting to Exhale (Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett, Gregory Hines, Mykelti Williamson, Lela Rochon), 1995, dir. by Forest Whitaker).

[Melas]

I'm so glad no one told my wife that women only want to marry up.