Volume 31 - Article 45 | Pages 1337–1364  

The gender divide in urban China: Singlehood and assortative mating by age and education

By Yue Qian, Zhenchao Qian

Abstract

Objective: Chinese media labels highly educated, urban women who are still single in their late 20s as "leftover ladies". We investigate whether indeed highly educated women are less likely to marry than their less-educated counterparts, and how assortative mating patterns by age and education play a role in singleness.

Methods: We use data from the urban samples of the Chinese General Social Surveys in the 2000s. In the analysis we calculate marriage rates to examine the likelihood of entry into marriage, and then apply log-linear models to investigate the assortative mating patterns by age and education.

Results: We find that as education increases, the likelihood of marriage increases among men but decreases among women, especially among those over age 30. The results from log-linear models reveal that more marriages involve better-educated, older men and less-educated, younger women.

Conclusions: We argue that persistent traditional gender roles, accompanied by the rapid rise in women's education, contribute to low marriage rates among older, highly educated women.

Author's Affiliation

• Yue Qian - University of British Columbia, Canada EMAIL
• Zhenchao Qian - Brown University, United States of America EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Differences in occupational homogamy by race, ethnicity, and national origin: A social mobility strategy for Asian Americans
Volume 48 - Article 18

Educational and age assortative mating in China: The importance of marriage order
Volume 41 - Article 3

Gender differences in educational adaptation of immigrant-origin youth in the United States
Volume 38 - Article 39

Gendered transitions to adulthood by college field of study in the United States
Volume 35 - Article 31

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