Better educated women more likely to divorce

Nov 5 2008

According to new research from the Australian National University (ANU), marriages where the woman is better educated than the man are more likely to end in divorce.

A new study funded by the Federal Government has revealed that women with tertiary educations who choose men as partners who did not finish high school are 10 times more likely to separate or get divorced than women whose education is less than or equal to their partner's.

The Australian study which examined the factors which contribute to the break-up of families with children, used data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics survey in order to investigate the factors which preceded the end of relationships.

The researchers from the ANU's Centre for Mental Health Research and the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, looked at factors such as mental health problems, alcohol abuse and smoking to discern if they were linked with divorce or separation and found that educational disparity was a key factor.

The researchers say compared to couples in which partners had similar levels of educational qualifications, those couples in which women had tertiary qualifications and men had not completed high school, a tenfold greater risk of divorce/separation was seen.

They say this may reflect two factors - educated women may be more financially independent and more able to support themselves outside of the marriage, removing a potential barrier to divorce or separation - and also such couples may experience greater conflict or dissatisfaction within the relationship, possibly because they are not adhering to the traditional gendered roles within marriage.

On the other hand the researchers found that couples with the opposite pattern of educational attainment - where the man had the tertiary qualifications and the woman did not complete high school - were not so likely to split up and were if anything more stable.

The study found the lowest rate of separation was among couples where both partners reported tertiary qualifications but there was no association between alcohol consumption and relationship instability, whereas if the woman smoked - there was an increased risk of divorce or separation.

The researchers say this reflects the effectiveness of women's smoking as a marker of social and economic disadvantage and adversity.

The study also found that marital stability was linked to having a child and also getting married at an older age and that religion was important in the couple's lives.