Of Marriage Ages and Age Gaps

In a new investigation, researchers show how women tend to marry at an younger age in areas where their numbers are smaller than those of men. This leads directly to significant increases in age gaps within the marriage, the team adds.

This happens everywhere around the world, in communities where there are fewer women than men. From an evolutionary stand point, this makes perfect sense, biologists believe.

“Women don't stay on the market long because men are more motivated to commit. They want to secure the relationship before some other guy gets her,” says expert and study researcher Daniel Kruger.

He holds an appointment as a research assistant professor at the University of Michigan (U-M) School of Public Health (SPH).

The expert says that large differences in numbers between the two genders usually result in separate situations, because men and women have slightly different reproductive agendas.

For the purpose of this study, investigators cross-referenced data collected during the 2000 US Census with statistical information on the ratio of men to women in 50 of the largest metropolitan statistical areas in the country.

Previous studies have demonstrated that women tend to seek the company of men with social status and resources, which means that, in a group were men abound, they have to compete even stronger than before.

Women prefer the safety of a resourceful male because this ensures the greatest possible degree of development for a potential offspring.

Marriageable males are also those who can provide their commitment to women. However, it is in the nature of most men to not be eager to settle down and have kids.

“When women are scarce they have more bargaining power and can ask for more,” Kruger reveals.

“So the guys who are qualified will snap up the women and get hitched, whereas others need more time to build up their resources and social status,” the expert goes on to say.

A direct result of that kind of situation is the fact that the marrying age for men increases, due to the fact that they need time to build up status and resources.

But, at the same time, women get married at a younger age, as they are “assailed” from all direction. This in turn leads to large age gasp inside the marriage, larger than in areas where there are about the same numbers of males as females.

Details of the new work appear in a paper entitled “Female scarcity reduces women's marital ages and increases variance in men's marital ages,” which is published in the latest issue of the top-rated journal Evolutionary Psychology.