The impact of educational hypogamy on gender equality within couples: A theoretical framework and evidence from the Gender and Generations Survey

This study examines the implications for gender equality of the increasing prevalence of heterosexual couples in which the woman is more highly educated than the man (‘educational hypogamy’). We review diverging theoretical predictions from the literature, integrate them into a comprehensive theoretical framework, and present a review of the current evidence. An empirical test of hypotheses is carried out using data from the Gender and Generations Survey. We use diagonal reference models (DRM) to disentangle the effects of partners’ absolute and relative education on their gender role attitudes and the distribution of paid work and domestic labour within the couple. Our findings indicate that hypogamy is associated with a more egalitarian division of paid work, particularly among parents of school-age children, and fosters more supportive views on maternal employment among fathers. However, the effects of hypogamy do not extend to a more balanced division of household chores, highlighting a disconnect consistent with the ‘stalled gender revolution’theory. That is, while hypogamous women are more active in the labour market and more likely to continue working after becoming mothers than their counterparts in homogamous unions, their partners do not proportionately increase their contribution to unpaid domestic work.