Abstract
Using wave 1 of the Japanese Life Course Panel Surveys, we consider the possibility that educational attainment differently influences two dimensions of women’s attitudes toward marriage: positive/negative and more/less interest. The women’s independence hypothesis predicts that women with higher educational attainment have negative attitudes toward marriage. According to the assortative mating hypothesis, higher educational attainment could affect women’s attitudes in two directions: (1) highly educated women have positive attitudes toward marriage and (2) highly educated women are less interested in marriage but do not have negative attitudes. Our dependent variable is marital aspiration with three attitude categories toward marriage: negative, need not marry (i.e., less interested in marriage), and positive. Results from the regression analysis suggest that women with higher educational attainment are less likely to choose the “negative” category. However, there is no significant difference between the “need not marry” and “positive” categories based on educational attainment. In effect, highly educated women are less interested in marriage. Our findings highlight the importance of higher educational attainment in enabling women to not be interested in marriage.
