Recently, i saw an opinion piece that proclaimed women to be at least
as sexist as men on the subject of the gender-wage-gap.  The author
proclaimed that (on average) women described their what-they'd-want- 
to-take-him-seriously-for-a-relationship-or-marriage minimum socio-
economic standard in men as:
 - of their own professional level
 - of their own social level
 - of their own age
 - of substantially *more* than their own income level
Obviously, Jane Average can't get a man who meets this standard of 
hers unless there's a nice, fat gender-based wage gap in the
workplace - which Jane Average is dead-set against.  The author of
the opinion piece didn't have much sympathy for Jane.....

How realistic do people think this picture of contradictory attitudes
is?  Any interesting experiences, or hard data, or ???

3 responses total.

I got the impression when reading through books about college admissions that
more than 50% of incoming students are female, meaning the average woman will
be married to someone of the same or less education.  Maybe men are going into
business instead of college?

Of my friends who are married:
One male doctor married to one female dental hygienist.
One male carpenter/farmer married to a school teacher who earns way more than
he does and pays more of the expenses.
One male self-taught (no college degree) ex-sys-op now installing solar arrays
married to a highly educated architect, now paying most of their expenses.

My general impression is that women are no longer looking for marital partners
for financial reasons, as they can earn enough themselves.  But the men listed
above are all about as old as or older than the women.  Of course my friends
are probably not average Americans in many ways (except for the first couple,
who are Macedonian).

My next-door neighbor who has health problems and receive state support asked
Jim if he knew of any nice rich husbands.  She seems to have settled for nice
instead of rich.  There is theory and there is practice.

Of Jim's sister's four kids, the two males are not married, but one was
briefly married to a woman with far more education and earning power, who
decided to quit her high-paying job to go into the hatmaking business.
One niece is a state representative, who thought she ought to marry a nice
engineer so they could afford expensive vacations, but has since found she
is happier with a younger police officer.  (She is a lawyer).  The other
niece, also a lawyer, was hanging out with a sales rep.  One brother is a
college dropout, the other a musician.

It's probably a help when both partners make about the same income.
At least if it's important that both see each other as equal in terms
of grunt work and household responsibilities and child care issues.

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