Is the age difference between partners related to women's earnings?

Carollo, Angela; Oksuzyan, Anna; Drefahl, Sven; Camarda, Carlo Giovanni; Ahrenfeldt, Linda Juel; Christensen, Kaare; Raalte, Alyson A. van

doi:10.4054/demres.2019.41.15

Cited by 6 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 52 publications

(60 reference statements)

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“…It is thus often presumed that wealthier men and younger women-those in a position to make the best "bids"-should be most likely to choose one another as partners. Yet this is complicated by the majority of studies showing that those in age-dissimilar couples (including older-man relationships) generally have less income and education than age-similar couples (Boyd & Li, 2003;Choi & Cheung, 2017;Mansour & McKinnish, 2013), or others finding that there is little relationship between age difference, income, and education (Carollo et al, 2019;Dribe & Nystedt, 2017;Oksuzyan et al, 2017). While mate choice is likely influenced by negotiations of women and men's differently perceived status, these are not straightforward.…”

Section: Economic Approaches: Resources Exchange and Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

Age‐dissimilar couple relationships: 25 years in review

McKenzie

2021

J of Family Theo & Revie

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This review explores research over the past quarter century on couples with age differences. I present recent global trends in age-dissimilar couplings, illustrating a shift away from statistical marriage studies focusing on relationships' motivations, inequalities, and challenges, and largely underpinned by biological, economic, or demographic outlooks. Since the last review of age-dissimilar couples in 1993, there have been substantive qualitative developments. Scholarship looking beyond Euro-American contexts is increasingly common, as are approaches examining class, race, sexuality, culture, religion, and nationality, as well as age, marital status, education, and employment. This transformation informs new perspectives on power and partner choice. I argue that research now needs more fluid definitions of age differences, greater range in qualitative studies' geographies and methodologies, and continued consideration of the life course and intersecting differences. Examinations of age-dissimilar couples should thus focus on these relationships' varied configurations, explored through a range of social analyses. K E Y W O R D S age, age-dissimilar relationships, intergenerational relationships, marriage, romantic love, sexResearch on couples with age differences, both now and in the past, provides an important means of exploring the changing and varied norms and realities of relationships. These couplings, variously known as age-dissimilar, age-discrepant, intergenerational, age-gap, or age-heterogamous relationships, 1 have received much popular attention and growing scholarly consideration in recent decades. The emphasis is largely on heterosexual couples, 2 and a recent global study found that, on average, women are 4.2 years younger than their cohabiting male partners (Pew Research Center, 2019, p. 89). Although patterns of age dissimilarities vary substantially by age, social position, sexuality, and cultural context, scholarship suggests that average age differences have declined, but with a simultaneous increase in older woman couplings and partnerships with very large differences, especially in the global North

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Section: Economic Approaches: Resources Exchange and Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

Age‐dissimilar couple relationships: 25 years in review

McKenzie

2021

J of Family Theo & Revie

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“…Conducting research with longitudinal microlevel data is a promising avenue for gaining deeper insights into the causes and consequences of the observed patterns. For example, Carollo et al (2019) used Danish register data and a twin design to study the causal impact of income on the age gap between marital partners. Moreover, examining how changing norms and roles are shaping the regularities we found would improve our understanding of changing gender relations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Carollo et al. (2019) used Danish register data and a twin design to study the causal impact of income on the age gap between marital partners. Moreover, examining how changing norms and roles are shaping the regularities we found would improve our understanding of changing gender relations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The more powerful partner generally has a greater say over decisions and might make choices that benefit him or her more (e.g., Friedberg and Webb 2006). For instance, each partner's bargaining power influences the division of labor in the couple, and, in turn, each partner's individual income (e.g., Carollo et al 2019;Dribe and Nystedt 2017). Hence, if younger women are increasingly likely to have children with a much older father while older women are increasingly likely to have children with a similar-aged man, the mother's age at childbirth might gain significance as an indicator of gender equality within families.…”

Section: Consequences Of (Changing) Parental Age Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Shifting Parental Age Differences in High‐Income Countries: Insights and Implications

Dudel,

Cheng,

Klüsener

2023

Population & Development Rev

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Age differences within couples are of considerable importance for the power relations between partners. These age differences become particularly relevant when couples transition to having a(nother) child, as such an event often results in a renegotiation of the gendered division of labor. Surprisingly, the literature on female empowerment and fertility postponement has so far paid little attention to parental age differences. This paper makes use of a new data set to present a demographic analysis of trends in parental age differences at childbirth in 15 high‐income countries, covering a period in which all of these countries experienced changes in gender relations and fertility postponement. The general trends in rising mean ages at childbirth have evolved quite similarly among men and women. However, we demonstrate that these similarities hide previously unexplored and highly gendered disparities in parental age differences. Older mothers report much smaller mean parental age differences than younger mothers, and this age pattern among mothers has further polarized over time. By contrast, older fathers report larger parental age differences than younger fathers, while the disparities by age among fathers have not changed much over time. We discuss the relevance of our findings at both the individual and the societal level.

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“…One explanation for the higher prevalence of age hypergamous marriages was the premium placed on the economic stability of men and the reproductive potential of women. Economic stability for men increased with age, while the reproductive potential for women declined with age, a combination of these two factors resulted in age hypergamous marriages (Carollo et al, 2019;Uggla & Wilson, 2020). This link, however, weakened as women's participation in nondomestic work increased and as demand for children fell (Utomo, 2014).…”

Section: Age Homogamy and Heterogamymentioning

confidence: 99%