Breaking the in‐group out‐group: shifting boundaries in transnational partner choice processes of individuals of Moroccan,Tunisian, Algerian,Turkish, Punjabi Sikh,Pakistani and Albanian descent in Belgium

The ongoing popularity in some second and third generation migrants in Western Europe of marrying a partner from the countries of origin of their (grand)parents is considered to be problematic for micro and macro level societal integration of some migrant populations. Partner choice and marriage practices in migrant communities are problematized in public, media and political discourses by discriminating them from marriage practices in the ‘native’ population on the basis of three related dichotomies: (1) agency versus structure, (2) us versus them and (3) romantic versus instrumental marriage intentions dichotomies. By means of in‐depth qualitative research methodologies on the partner choice processes of women and men of Turkish, Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian, Punjabi Sikh, Pakistani and Albanian descent in Belgium and an intersectional theoretical approach, this article aims to deconstruct popular and simplifying dichotomous representations of partner choice processes in these migrant populations. Our study reveals how religious, gender and social class boundaries are stretched to meet personal/individual desires and preferences. Individuals do experience social restrictions when it concerns social group boundaries and the potential partners that they can look for. At the same time individuals are never fully determined by their social environment, they creatively develop strategies to by‐pass certain restrictions and to some extent are able to meet their personal needs while being sensitive to the desires of their social environment.     

Partnerwahl als konsensuelle Entscheidung

This study continues our analyses of contacting behavior in online dating (KZfSS 2/2009). As the beginning and continuation of a relationship is based on consensual decisions of both partners to interact, we concentrate on the question if and how potential partners indeed reply to contact offers. Data from online dating platforms therefore offer a unique opportunity for sociologists to study how partnerships are initiated and how they develop over time. This contribution provides four important empirical results: Firstly, it demonstrates that only 20% of all first contact offers are answered. This is a surprisingly small proportion. Secondly, it supports the hypothesis of homophily. According to this hypothesis, people with similar education, age and physical attractiveness should prefer each other and thus are more likely to form couples. Third, it shows that women still have severe problems to reply to contact offers from lower educated men, while men are already less reluctant to reply to higher educated women. Thus, the rarity of couples where women are higher educated than their partners are to a large proportion the consequence of women’s preferences rather than men’s preferences. Finally, our study does not find any support for the trade-off hypothesis, indicating that women do not exchange their physical attractiveness for men’s educational resources, and vice versa.     

Religion,Marriage Markets,and Assortative Mating in the United States

As interfaith marriage has become more common, religion is thought to be less important for sorting partners. Nevertheless, prior studies on religious assortative mating use samples of prevailing marriages, which miss how local marriage markets shape both partner selection and marriage timing. Drawing on search theory and data from 8,699 young adults (ages 18–31 years) in the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997, the author examined the association between the concentration of coreligionists in local marriage markets and marriage timing and partner selection using event history methods. Religious concentration is associated with higher odds of transitioning to marriage and religious homogamy (conditional on marriage) for women and men at older ages (24–31 years) but not at younger ages (18–23 years). The association was also stronger for non‐Hispanic Whites when compared with other racial and ethnic groups. The findings indicate that religion remains relevant in sorting partners for many young adults in today's marriage market.     

Changing Partners: Toward a Macrostructural‐Opportunity Theory of Marital Dissolution

We merge marital history data for respondents in the National Survey of Families and Households with census data describing the sex composition of their local marriage markets and occupations to examine the impact of the availability of spousal alternatives on marital dissolution. Proportional hazards regression models that adjust for left truncation reveal that the risk of divorce is highest in geographically defined marriage markets where either husbands or wives encounter numerous alternatives to their current partner. Couples are also more likely to divorce when the wife works in an occupation having relatively many men and few women, but husbands' occupational sex ratio has no effect on the risk of marital dissolution. The destabilizing effects of the availability of spousal alternatives in the local marriage market and in wives' occupations are equally strong among couples with many and few other risk factors for divorce. Our findings suggest that spouses' structural opportunities to form alternative opposite‐sex relationships are an important factor in explaining why some couples divorce.     

Does Mate Scarcity Affect Marital Choice and Family Formation? The Evidence for New and Classic Formulations of Sex Ratio Theory

Guttentag and Secord pioneered research on the social consequences of imbalances in the numbers of men and women—the sex ratio. Since then, sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, and even biologists have investigated its effects on marriage and reproduction. I review the three prevailing theories to explain why sex ratio should affect marriage and reproduction, along with the evidence that it does. I also review the growing evidence that sex ratio imbalances are associated with mate choice. Sex ratio reveals contradictory relationships with mate preferences and actual partner choice, however, raising a conundrum for future research. Overall, there is strong experimental and correlational support for the patterns of marriage and reproduction associated with sex ratio. What emerges is the necessity for future research to distinguish among the perspectives to explain why.     

Marriage and female labour supply in Brunei Darussalam: A case study of urban women in Bandar Seri Begawan

We analyse the relationships between marriage and female labour supply for urban householders in Bandar Seri Begawan, capital city of Brunei Darussalam in Southeast Asia. This analysis is based on a survey of 151 adult women. We establish that age, total number of career work position(s) held, expressing the degree of labour mobility, and the level of educational attainment influence participation of women (both married and single) in formal labour markets. A major factor influencing the likelihood of married women working is the number of their children below the age of 18. Higher propensity to work occurs with decreasing number of children. Wage incomes of working women are largely determined by the level of educational attainment, work experience and social class status. Married women are more likely to work than unmarried women and on average earn about 53% more than unmarried women assuming other things constant. The main factors influencing the value of time in marriage of currently married women are the income of husband, their work experience, educational attainment and age. This value decreases with increasing age of the woman spouse but it increases with higher levels of work experience and educational attainment of the woman, and higher income of her husband.     

Fertilitätsentscheidungen im Partnerschaftskontext

A review of existing sociological literature on fertility decisions reveals that most empirical studies focus on characteristics of the female spouse as explanatory factors, while the role of the partner is neglected for the most part. However, most children are fathered and born into an existing relationship and the influence of the partner has to be regarded as an important determining factor for childbirth. We propose starting from a bargaining perspective and model family-formation as a collective decision mutually agreed upon by both spouses, especially scrutinizing on the interrelation of both partners' educational level. In this paper, we examine in how far certain educational constellations have an impact on family formation. Classical theories of family economics suggest that educational asymmetries between partners may encourage parenthood. Our analysis is based on German Mikrozensus data collected between 1996 and 2004. The large sample allows us to analyze in detail the effects of educational levels as well as uncommon educational constellations. In a first step, we investigate separate effects of general and vocational education of each partner, followed by a quasi-cohort design, with women born in the mid 1960th and mid 1970th, to study the timing of the first birth. We conclude that traditional hypergamy may foster parenthood. But also educational homogamy leads to a higher amount of parents as compared to hypogamous couples, in which the wife's educational qualification exceeds the husband's educational degree.     

Positive and negative preferences in human mate selection

This paper focuses on preferences for specific characteristics in a potential partner using data from 1993 to 1999 provided by a French marriage bureau. We perform an econometric analysis of the various traits either sought or rejected in a potential partner, respectively by men and women. Our results are consistent with investment in marriage. On the one hand, men tend to reject vulgar and unfaithful women, meaning that they are likely to suffer serious fitness costs from infidelity. On the other hand, women dread meeting potential partners who are alcoholic, selfish or violent.     

Partner Choice and the Differential Retreat From Marriage

The contemporary retreat from marriage in the United States has had a differential impact across socioeconomic and racial groups. Here, 1990 marriage rates and propensities for Virginia, North Carolina, and Wisconsin are analyzed regarding (a) the likelihood that persons in different groups ever marry and (b) patterns of partner choice with respect to race and educational level. Marriage remains strong in most race‐education groups but is substantially lower among Blacks and among those with less than 12 years of education. Patterns of partner choice have shifted to show greater symmetry between the educational levels of brides and grooms. Changes have been modest with regard to the level and pattern of interracial (Black‐White) marriage. Marriage is increasingly a union of equals, but a union chosen more by Whites than by Blacks and more by the well educated than by the poorly educated.     

Gender bias in job referrals: An experimental test

Employee referral programs, while efficient for the employer, have been shown to amplify sex-based occupational segregation in labor markets because of the tendency of workers to refer people of the same gender. We implement a controlled laboratory experiment that precludes any concern for network composition or reputation effects in referral choice. In this way, our experimental design allows us to disentangle statistical discrimination, preferences, and implicit same-gender bias. Our data suggest that women tend to favor women when choosing a candidate, whereas men do not attach much importance to the gender of potential candidates. We deduce from our various treatments that same-gender referrals are mainly driven by preferences in competitive environments and implicit same-gender bias in cooperative environments. Our findings add to the existing literature by highlighting that gendered networks alone fail to explain the observed gender homophily in referred-referrer pairs.     

A New Marriage Squeeze for Black Women: The Role of Racial Intermarriage by Black Men

Recent declines in the rate of marriage among Black women have been accompanied by substantial increases in rates of interracial marriage, especially between Black men and non‐Black women. Explanations for the retreat from marriage among Black women have focused on deficits in the quantity and quality of available partners, and the role of racial intermarriage largely has been ignored. This study examines the impact of interracial marriage by Black men on the marriage prospects of Black women. First, our analysis of data from the 1990 Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) reveals that intermarried Black men are selective of those with the highest levels of education, income, and occupational prestige. Second, multilevel analyses, using both the IPUMS and Panel Study of Income Dynamics, show that the level of intermarriage in metropolitan areas is significantly related to the marital behaviors of Black women. Local rates of intermarriage among Black men reduce the likelihood that Black women currently will be married and that they will make the transition to marriage. These effects are especially acute for highly educated Black women whose marriage markets are defined by those Black men who are most likely to intermarry. Finally, our analyses indicate that intermarriage affects the marital prospects of Black women by negatively affecting the pool of economically attractive marriage partners in the metropolitan area.     

Gender and Ethnic Differences in Marital Assimilation in the Early Twentieth Century1

Historical research on intermarriage has overlooked how distinctive patterns of ethnic settlement shape partner choice and assumed that the mate selection process operated the same way for men and women. This study utilizes a sample of youn married adults drawn from the 1910 Census IPUMS to examine 1) whether ethnic variation in partner choice was shaped by differences in group concentration and distribution and 2) if factors shaping outmarriage were gendered. About one fifth of young married Americans had spouses of a different ethnic background in 1910, though there was considerable ethnic variation in outmarriage propensities. Barriers to intermarriage fell at different rates, depending upon ethnic grou, sex, and region of settlement; they were weakest for first‐and seconl eneration English men. Structural factors such as group size operatef differently for men and women; while larger group representation increased men's odds of outmarriage to both native stock and other white ethnic wives, women from the ethnic groups with the largest presence were significantly more likely to wed fellow ethnics than the native stock. Ultimately, even if they resided in the same location, the marriage market operated in different ways for ethnic women and men in search of mates.     

Cohabitation in the Philippines: Attitudes and Behaviors Among Young Women and Men

We examine data from a national survey of 15 – 27 year olds in the Philippines to assess attitudes toward marriage and cohabitation, and we analyze the marital and nonmarital union experiences of 25 – 27 year olds. We find that attitudes toward cohabitation remain quite conservative among young Filipinos, although men view cohabitation more favorably than do women. We also find that men’s socioeconomic status affects their ability to enter unions, particularly marriage, whereas women’s union formation patterns are influenced by the family in which they grew up, their participation in religious services, and to some degree by their place of residence. Both men and women who hold more liberal attitudes on a range of issues are more likely to have cohabited than are individuals who do not share those views. For now, however, we do not expect cohabitation to become a widespread substitute for marriage in the Philippines.     

HOMOGAMY AMONG DATING, COHABITING, AND MARRIED COUPLES

The winnowing hypothesis posits that transitions from dating to cohabiting to marital unions are marked by increasing selectivity in the mate selection or matching process. In this paper, we provide comparative estimates of educational, racial, and religious homogamy and heterogamy along a continuum of commitment: sexually intimate dating couples, cohabiting couples, and married couples. Log-linear models, fitted to cross-classified data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth, provide only partial support for the winnowing hypothesis. On the one hand, homogamy with respect to race and religion increases slightly as relationships progress from dating to cohabitation to marriage. On the other hand, each relationship–dating, cohabiting, and married–is marked by substantial homogamy, at least for the traits considered here. And, in the absence of homogamy, each couple type reveals quite similar patterns of educational heterogamy or intermarriage, although upward mobility through partnering is less evident among cohabitors. Overall, however, the rather stringent sorting criteria that men and women use in selecting a marital partner, which manifests itself in marital homogamy, is also used in dating and cohabiting relationships.     

Spouse Preferences of Never-Married,Divorced, and Cohabiting Americans

This research demonstrates that mate-selection preferences are patterned according to men's and women's prior experiences with marriage, divorce, and cohabitation. Compared with men and women who have never divorced or cohabited, men and women who have experienced one or both of these events express consistently different references in their willingness to marry others with particular personal traits. The research was based on a national sample of 2,536 unmarried individuals interviewed as part of the National Survey of Families and Households. The existence of patterned differences in mate-selection preferences is interpreted to imply the possible existence of different "marriage markets" for those who have and have not experienced divorce or cohabitation. The implications of the existence of such varied marriage markets for the cultural meaning of marriage are explored.     

Remarriage after divorce: recent changes and demographic variations

Using data from US Bureau of the Census publications from the decennial censuses and the Bureau's Current Population Reports, the authors analyze remarriage in the US. Among adults who had ended their 1st marriage in divorce, about 3/4 of the elderly men and 2/3 of the elderly women in both 1970 and 1980 were found to be remarried. However, the general decline in remarriage at the younger ages during the 1970s was accentuated among those under 35 years old. Although the proportion remarried among women with graduate school training was the smallest, that proportion declined less during the 1970s than for women in any other educational level. In both 1970 and 1980, the proportion remarried was positively correlated with personal income for men but negatively for women. An estimated 2/3 of those who end their 1st marriage in divorce will eventually remarry while they have young children living with them. During the lifetime of women in their 2nd marriage after their 1st marriage ended in divorce, only 1/3 of their children are born after remarriage, whereas 2/3 are born before their 2nd marriages. During the 1970s, the proportion of currently divorced adults living alone or sharing the homes of relatives diminished, while the proportion living as cohabitants outside marriage rose substantially. It appears as if both the divorce rate and the remarriage rate are approaching a period of relative stability.     

Geschlecht und Schulerfolg: Ein soziales Stratifikationsmuster kehrt sich um

In this paper, we seek to identify factors that account for the declining school performance of boys and young men. After reviewing and analysing the international literature on gender and education, we integrate various explanatory approaches into a model that is rooted in the theory of socialisation. The model focuses on the developmental tasks which young men face during adolescence. Our central thesis is that the declining school performance of young men cannot be fully explained by their failure to cope with educational challenges, i.e., their problems with respect to the developmental task “qualification”. Rather, a comprehensive explanation requires the incorporation of three other central developmental tasks, “social attachments”, “regeneration”, and “participation”. In the last decades, it has become easier for young women to cope with these tasks than it is for young men. Thus a rare sociological incident has occurred: the reversal of centuries-old pattern of social stratification. Nowadays, young women and not young men acquire the privileged certificates offered by the educational system, and it is them who gain the more promising career prospects. Our thesis can be supported with data from a broad range of international studies. The crucial implication is that supporting young men at school will show only limited results. Rather, to improve the school performance of young men, it is also necessary to address their deficits in coping with the other aforementioned developmental tasks, all of which point to challenges that young people are expected to master in today's individualised, achievement-oriented society.     

MARRIAGE ROLE EXPECTATIONS OF DIVORCED MEN AND WOMEN

Marriage role expectations of divorced men and women were compared to those of married men and women. Six dimensions of expectations were examined along the continuum of traditionalism versus equalitarianism in sex roles: (I) authority patterns. (2) household tasks, (3) childcare, (4) personal characteristics, (5) social participation, and (6) finances and employment. The data suggest that women, more than men, view marriage role responsibilities as evenly applying to both sexes. Divorce appears to have a liberalizing effect on men's perceptions of marriage roles, but divorced women express a significantly higher level of equalitarianism in their marriage role perceptions than any other comparison group. Differences in expectations regarding authority, finances, and employment appear to be broadened between men and women as a result of divorce.     

Love,Marriage and the Division of Labor*

In this questionnaire study young engaged men and women were asked about the importance of love in marriage and the meaning of the concept “love.” Marital goals and criteria for mate choice were also explored. A highly consistent image of marriage as an institution in which to realize a comprehensive companionship with a partner of compatible temperament and life goals emerged. These findings have demonstrable implications for existing theoretical formulations concerning the dysfunctional aspects of the love marriage in contemporary American society in which it is contended that “romantic idealization” during courtship leads to a high incidence of dissatisfaction and disruption. Findings from numerous studies are assimilated to present an alternative explanation for marital conflict in the context of the modern division of labor in which the spheres of work and the family are poorly integrated, particularly in view of sharp role segregation by sex.