No, it’s not only for the rich. One might think so after reading this article in the Atlantic. Gone are the Cinderella days when a poor or working class woman could expect to marry the (rich) handsome prince. These days, said prince will bypass her in favor of a princess of the same status as he.  In other words, educated, high earning men want educated high earning women and vice versa.

Marriage used to be a pairing of opposites: Men would work for pay and women would work at home… It has slowly become an arrangement pairing similarly rich and educated people. Ambitious workaholics used to seek partners who were happy to take care of the house. Today, they’re more likely to seek another ambitious workaholic.

There are a number of things that we can take away from this article:

There IS a marriage crisis in America having everything to do with socio-economic status.

Single parents living in poverty were more often than not poor before they became single parents thus confirming the belief that higher income and well educated people are less likely to become single parents (or have large families after marrying).

Married couples are doing well because of the wife’s added income rather than the husband’s sole income.

Those of you ladies who are educated and career-minded, take heart. You are the one sought after by educated and powerful men. In this discourse on increasing our desirability and marrying well, we often forget that men have to marry well too. It seems a lady has to be what she requires of men. If you want to live well with a high earning husband, you should be a high earner as well. This doesn’t mean that you have to make the same amount of money he does but you should be successful in some way. Even Melody Hobson had her own before George Lucas popped the question. This could make one wonder if powerful men are preferring and limiting themselves to successful women in order to protect themselves from superficial relationships. If so, can you blame them?

Moral of the story? If you want the best man possible, you have to be among the best women.