March 27, 2007 1:48 PM

Happily ever after revisited
Posted by Diane Danielsonat 1:48 PM

The latest study on family and home life comes from Wharton, where two professors documented that marriage and divorce are both at low points. 

Specifically, the number of people getting married, which has been falling for the past 25 years, is at its lowest point in recorded history, while the divorce rate in 2005 reached its lowest level since 1970.

Well, this shouldn't be surprising.  Demographics and economics have made marriage into almost a "luxury."   And when we actually have a population of people wanting to get married (to their same gender), most places won't even let them.  Sheesh.

But, according to the authors of the study, the workplace might be in for a shock in the next few years.

While the authors have no definitive answer for how this trend will play out, they suggest in their study that "a related shock to future marital patterns" and their impact on the workplace is the "sharply changing gender ratios on college campus. ... While women were a distinct minority of undergraduates in 1960, they are now a clear majority."

Women with a college degree "have traditionally married men with college degrees," Stevenson says. "As more women than men graduate from college, are they going to not marry, or marry men without college degrees? That's the $64,000 question when it comes to marriage. It's very hard to predict what impact this will have on the workplace, although it is clear that among the pool of skilled workers, a growing share will be female."

My guess?  No MRS's for female MBAs.  This trend of less-educated men has played out in Black and Hispanic cultures for years, and in fact, those women have chosen NOT to marry.