Womens Economic Standing, Marriage Timing, and Cross-National Contexts of Gender

Proponents of the theory of specialization and exchange hypothesize that in any national context, womenʹs higher economic standing will decrease their chance of marriage. Some researchers suggest, however, that only in industrialized countries with a high degree of role differentiation by gender does the inverse relationship between womenʹs economic standing and the chance of marriage exist. To evaluate contrasting cross-national predictions, I test with longitudinal data and standardized methods whether the inverse relationship exists in 3 similarly affluent industrialized countries that vary in their degree of role differentiation by gender: the United States, Japan (a context more differentiated by gender than the United States), and Sweden (a context less differentiated by gender than the United States). Contrary to the prediction that develops out of the theory of specialization and exchange, results indicate that womenʹs higher levels of income discourage first marriage formation in Japan, but encourage it in the United States and Sweden.