Single men have ceased to be afraid of smart and educated women. And I don’t even mind that they earn a lot. Does this mean that we have come closer to the equality of partners? A new trend is analyzed by love relationship expert Helen Fisher.
Dating service Match.com has been studying the preferences and requests of single people in the USA for 5 years1. In recent years, researchers have recorded a noticeable change in the requirements that men and women place on future life partners and companions. The main surprise is that men no longer consider it shameful to be less intelligent or educated than their chosen ones. Anthropologist Helen Fisher, who led the study, jokingly called the trend the “George Clooney effect,” a nod to one of last year’s major social events. An inveterate bachelor and heartthrob, George Clooney, at the age of 53, nevertheless decided to tie the knot. Moreover, his chosen one was not a young sexy starlet, but 36-year-old Amal Alamuddin, a successful lawyer and well-known human rights activist. How much smarter or more educated she is than Clooney is, of course, a debatable question. But for Helen Fisher, in this case, apparently, it was important to give the most vivid and visual definition possible. Perhaps she knows better – Fischer has been exploring love for many years, in particular, the causes of this feeling, the behavior of people in love, “markers” of strong marital relations.
The new trend reflects the social changes of recent decades. A woman in partnerships has long been no longer content with the role of mother and keeper of the hearth. She has the opportunity to get a good education and build a successful career, without any fear of remaining an “old maid” either at 30 or 40 years old. And men finally responded to these changes. And quite positively. 87% of the men who participated in the study said that they have nothing against relationships with an independent woman who is smarter than them, better educated and even earns more money.
However, here men will have to be disappointed. Because women themselves are fully aware of the changes that have taken place. And with them – and their own value. 86% of women are looking for a man equal in intelligence in a relationship. For 61% of the study participants, the situation when they are smarter than their partner is unacceptable. And 55% of women do not want to support their partner financially.
Naturally, all these considerations are not key to the formation of happy unions. Because the key is still the external attractiveness of men and women for each other. However, these unions themselves, now without any reservations, should be considered not as relations of leaders and followers, but as a full-fledged partnership, the researchers believe.
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