Over the past decades, women have fought hard for their rights and for equality between the sexes, and several customs and power relations have changed as a result of this effort. Although there is still much to be done in this regard, according to a study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), women are more educated than men when it comes to university studies.

This reality, which could be positive, correlates negatively with having a partner: heterosexual women with higher education tend to be less likely to enter into a formal relationship . At least this is what the science says. In this article, we will review some studies that address this issue.

The relationship between studying and having a partner

As far as love is concerned, each person’s tastes may vary; however, many individuals seem to be attracted by the appearance of other people’s intelligence, which is what is known as sapiosexuality. But being intelligent and having a higher education does not seem to be good when it comes to knowing where we want to have a serious relationship. Women’s high level of education makes it difficult for them to have a partner.

Jon Birger, a financial and technology journalist, decided to investigate this phenomenon. Her curiosity arose because a friend of hers, apparently very intelligent and educated, could not find anyone compatible with her. This led him to carry out research in the United States using demographic data, and he analyzed heterosexual individuals who were highly educated and in search of the ideal person. With the results, he published a book called Date-onomics: How Dating Became a Lopsided Numbers Game in which he explains some of his findings.

The cause: lack of trained men

According to the author, one of the reasons that educated women do not succeed in love relationships is the shortage of men with the same level of education. At least in the United States, the shortage of university men is not only a phenomenon characteristic of the big cities of this country, such as New York City, where there are 4 university women for every 3 men . That is, except in Silicon Valley, where the country’s economy drives the male research labour market (according to Birger).

The data extracted by Binger show that in 2015, 35% more women than men graduated, and of these, 33% are still single . As the author concludes, a large number of women do not agree with having a relationship with someone with a lower level of education, which makes the statistics show this relative trend towards being single.

Smart women are more likely to be single

Binger’s study is not the only one that has been carried out in this line of research, and the hypothesis that the smartest women are at the same time the most demanding and therefore tend to remain single, is not new. In fact, a study led by John Carney and published in the British publications Daily Mail and Elite Daily, among others, already concluded that this was a more than real possibility.

This statement could be considered classist and full of prejudice, but perhaps this idea is not so far-fetched. The emotional connection has a lot to do with finding a person who mentally seduces us, and at least in the case of intelligent women with learned cultural resources, it can be complicated to find a man with whom to express oneself freely and feel intellectually stimulated . The body can enter us through the eyes, but if there is no mental connection afterwards, that relationship can hardly last (unless it is a toxic relationship).

However, Carney’s conclusions have aroused some controversy, since according to him less intelligent women have more free time because they do not spend many hours studying more or working more to earn money. Less intellectually gifted women tend to create relationships with men who are smarter than they are, who are better off and have better jobs. If you want to know more about this study and its conclusions, you can read this article: “Intelligent women tend to be single”.

Toadish women?

It seems, therefore, that at least in the case of women there is a certain degree of sapiosexuality with an exclusionary meaning. Logically, each person is a world , but these data put the focus on the fact that many women are attracted to the “bogeyman”. The sapiosexuals are those people who say they are attracted by the “inside”, that is, by the intellectual capacity.

For these individuals, the preliminaries are initiated into interesting and stimulating conversations (art, politics, philosophy, etc.). The sapiosexual thinks that his partner’s intellect is one of the most important traits he possesses.

Men prefer them less reflective

And… what about men? Do they prefer smart women or not? Well, it seems that they prefer women with less intellectual resources. This is the conclusion of research carried out by Lutheran University and the University of Texas. Researchers from these universities state that men are intimidated by intelligent women and have a special predilection for women who are not very reflective.

To learn about these results, the researchers surveyed a large group of students about what actions, body postures, attitudes, or personality traits they found most appealing. This helped them to extract 88 factors that they used as part of their study, in which they showed a series of photographs with these traits to 76 men.

The subjects were asked what behaviours they associated with these and what was their level of desire towards these factors . The men stated that the more vulnerable and less intelligent women were more attractive.