During the last decades, women have fought a lot for their rights and for equality between the sexes, and there are several customs and power relations that have changed thanks to this effort. Although there are still many things to do in this regard, according to a study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), women are more educated than men regarding university studies.
This reality, which could be positive, correlates negatively with the fact of having a partner: heterosexual women with higher education tend to be less likely to enter into a formal relationship At least this is what science claims. In this article we will review some studies that address this topic.
The relationship between studying and having a partner
As for love, each person’s tastes may vary; However, many individuals seem to be attracted to the appearance of intelligence in other people, this is what is known as sapiosexuality. But being intelligent and having higher education does not seem to be good when it comes to meeting someone we want to have a serious relationship with. The high educational level of women makes it difficult for them to have a partner.
Jon Birger, financial and technology journalist, decided to investigate this phenomenon. Her curiosity arose because a friend of hers, apparently very intelligent and educated, could not find someone compatible with her. This led him to conduct research in the United States with demographic data, and he analyzed heterosexual individuals who had higher education and were searching for the ideal person. With the results, he published a book called Date-onomics: How Dating Became a Lopsided Numbers Game in which he explains some of his conclusions.
The cause: shortage of trained men
According to the author, one of the reasons why educated women are not successful in romantic relationships is the scarcity of men with the same educational level. At least in the United States, the shortage of university men is not only a characteristic phenomenon of the large cities of this country, such as New York City, where there are 4 university women for every 3 men Of course, except in Silicon Valley, where the country’s economy boosts the male research job market (Birger thinks).
Data extracted by Binger shows that in 2015, 35% more women graduated than men, and Of these, 33% are still single As the author concludes, a large part of women do not agree with having a relationship with someone with a lower educational level, which causes the statistics to show a relative trend towards singleness.
Intelligent women are more likely to be single
Binger’s study is not the only one that has been carried out in this line of research, and the hypothesis that the most intelligent women are also the most demanding and, consequently, tend to remain single, is not new. In fact, a study led by John Carney and published in the British publications Daily Mail and Elite Daily, among others, already concluded that this was a more than real possibility.
This statement could be considered classist and full of prejudices, but perhaps this idea is not so far-fetched. Emotional connection has a lot to do with finding a person who mentally seduces us, and at least in the case of intelligent women with learned cultural resources, it can be difficult to find a man with which to express yourself freely and feel intellectually stimulated The body can enter through our eyes, but if there is no mental connection, that relationship can hardly last (unless it is a toxic relationship).
Now, Carney’s conclusions have sparked some controversy, since according to him, less intelligent women have more free time because they do not spend many hours studying more or work more to earn money. Less intellectually gifted women tend to create relationships with men who are more intelligent than them, who have a greater economic position and a better job. If you want to delve deeper into this study and learn about its conclusions, you can read this article: “Intelligent women tend to be single.”
Sapiosexual women?
It seems, therefore, that at least in the case of women there is a certain degree of sapiosexuality with an exclusive meaning. Logically, each person is a world , but these data highlight the fact that many women are attracted to the “coconut.” Sapiosexuals are those people who say they are attracted to “the inside”, that is, to intellectual capacity.
For these individuals, the preliminaries begin in interesting and stimulating conversations (art, politics, philosophy, etc.). The sapiosexual thinks that his partner’s intellect is one of the most important traits he possesses.
Men prefer them less reflective
And… what happens in the case of men? Do they prefer intelligent women or not? Well, it seems that they prefer women with fewer intellectual resources. This is what concludes an investigation carried out by the university institutions Lutheran University and the University of Texas. Researchers from these universities affirm that men They feel intimidated by intelligent women and they have a special predilection for women who are not very reflective.
To find out these results, the researchers surveyed a large group of students about which actions, body postures, attitudes or personality traits they found most attractive. This helped them extract 88 factors that they used as part of their study, in which they showed a series of photographs with these traits to 76 men.
The subjects were asked what behaviors they associated with these and What was your level of desire towards these factors? Men said that more vulnerable and less intelligent women were more attractive.