Social exchange or reinforcement of women’s educational advantage? The influence of educational assortative mating on occupational assortative mating for couples in Spain

Abstract

The reversal of the gender gap in education has transformed traditional patterns of assortative mating, increasing the number of hypogamous couples. This change has been particularly intense in the case of Spain, a country of great interest due to the ambivalence of strong support for egalitarian attitudes and high proportion of traditional couples. Using quarterly microdata from the Spanish Labour Force Survey, applying generalised ordered-logit models, this research reveals that educational hypogamy increases the probability of occupational hypogamy. This association is consistent with the use of different occupational classifications and levels of disaggregation. But there are some factors that limit the transmission of women’s educational advantages to their occupational levels, mainly gender differences in access to the labour market and an uneven distribution of professional achievements by sex. The findings obtained underline the relevance of using different measures as well as different theoretical approaches to explain seemingly contradictory couple equilibria.