The Connection Between Education and Marriage

The  New York Times  recently ran a marriage based article that’s been receiving a lot of buzz around the web.
Chris Faulkner and Jessica Schairer share many of the same attributes. They are both educated, Midwestern women working at the same day care and have children of their own. What sets them apart other than the fact that Schairer works for Faulkner is their marital status; Faulkner is married and Schairer is a single mother.While the economy has played a role in inequality among Americans, scholars agree that an individual’s level of education and marital status has influenced the income gaps.

Faulkner completed her degree from a four-year university, whereas Schairer only completed high school and a degree from a community college. It’s been shown that “less-educated women like Ms. Schairer, who left college without finishing her degree, are growing less likely to marry at all, raising children on pinched paychecks that come in ones, not twos,” the New York Times reports.

Needless to say, it would seem as though the cycle of education, marital status and family structure is a continuous one. Andrew Cherlin, a sociologist at Johns Hopkins University believes, “It is the privileged Americans who are marrying, and marrying helps them stay privileged.”

View the complete article from  The New York Times.

In your own life, what correlations between someone’s education or marital status to their income and family relationships have you noted if any?

About the author

Stacie Bailey is a recent graduate of Quinnipiac University with a master’s degree in Interactive Communications. She has strong interests in relationships, health, social media and an overall love for sharing knowledge and information.


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Comments (2)

  1. mj Wednesday - 18 / 07 / 2012 Reply
    did you notice how they emphasized the race of the so called deadbeat dad?
  2. itsme Monday - 23 / 07 / 2012 Reply
    The statistics used in this article are so misleading! For example, how do you compare the statistics of children out of wedlock for white women with some with some postsecondary education against all women with college educations??? Hoe do you compare children born in wedlock, with no evidence that they grew up in wedlock against children born outside of wedlock??? At least compare apples to apples. Second, the article does not address the class the women were born into, the strongest predictor of future class. It is clear Ms. Schairer grew up working class. Plus the Faulkners husband is a computer programmer, one of the highest income jobs there is, the wifes income is probably similar to Ms. Schairer. Very, very slanted.

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