Young Chinese wives more educated than husbands.
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In a groundbreaking shift, young Chinese women are now more educated than their husbands. Could we see a redefinition of traditional roles or will tensions arise as the balance tilts?

And believe it or not, Gen Z isn't as computer savvy as you might think. The smartphone generation may be experts on social media, but many lack the basic computer skills needed for today's jobs. Coming to you from Beijing, this is Roundtable. I'm He Young. For today's program, I'm joined by Steve Hatherly and Yu Shen. First on today's show...

Recent studies show that young Chinese women born after 1999 are now more educated than their husbands on average, a shift that has far-reaching implications. This is happening not only in China, but in developed countries too. What does this mean for relationships?

household decisions and gender roles moving forward. So tell us what has changed, Yuxian? Here in China, well, the new study was published earlier this year in a paper by Cheng Shusong. So he is the director of East China Normal University's Population Research Institute, which kind of started a heated discussion online lately after Chinese media outlet The Paper reported

its findings online. So basically, Ching's project analyzed data collected from over 12,000 married couples born between 1950 and 1994, taken from the China Family Panel studies that's conducted by Peking University. And what does the data show? It revealed that the proportion of

women marrying men with a lower educational background has steadily risen in recent decades, while the proportion of those marrying men with higher education levels has been failing. And among the senior group born between 1950 and 1954, only less than 7% of women married

down in educational terms. But among the younger group born between 1990 and 1994, more than a quarter did so. So, which just implicates that young people nowadays, especially young women, they don't really care too much about the educational background of their spouse upon marriage, let's say. Well, that's your conclusion. Yeah, that's your opinion. I don't know if we can paint an entire female population

having that opinion as well. But, you know, the statistics do paint a certain picture as well. A little bit more about the statistics. Among those between 1950 and 1954, 26.9% of husbands married down in education terms. I don't like that term, by the way. Married down? It's so condescending, I feel like, but...

The only implication here is that someone has more educational qualifications than the other person. Anyway, 66.2% of married to wives of the same education level during that period, 1950 to 1954. But yeah, from 1990 to 1994, the figure dropped to 21.6% and 52.6% respectively.

And so we're seeing a massive, massive shift compared to what was happening in the 1950s. And actually, this is not really the only study that's pointing out such a finding, because, well, this is according to an earlier paper that was published in 2022 by this scholar named Xu Qi, an associate professor from School of Sociology, Nanjing University, who suggests that among couples who got married between 2014 and 2018, around a

quarter of women married men with a lower educational level than theirs. So yeah, like more than one studies have been pointing out to this fact. And I believe this is not really just the case in China as well. This is the first time this has happened, correct? According to the statistics? Well, this is the first time that it's received such wide notice. And also,

Yeah, I think as a phenomenon, this is possibly the first time in this country. Yeah, this has happened in many other countries as well, but not all happening at the same time. From the United States, they did some research from the Institute of Family Studies and

And at that time, this is 2017, at that time, a record 25.3% of husbands were now married to wives who had more education than them. So this was 2017 in the United States when that happened.

In other countries, too, I kept looking, right? Because I thought, oh, is this just China? No, it's China and America. So let's dig a little deeper. In Canada, from June of 2013, this is from CBC. By gender, 64.8% of working-age women now have a post-secondary education compared with 63.4% of men. This was the first time females surpassed males in...

in overall educational attainment. Now that doesn't reference marriage numbers at all, but I thought it was still relevant because it doesn't really matter. What we're talking about here in our lead, we're mentioning the word marriage, right?

But take away the marriage and you're still talking about women are becoming more educated than men overall. And it happened in Canada in 2013 for the very first time. In Australia, it happened as well. And in Korea, this is from September from this year. An OECD study found that Korean women in their mid-20s and mid-30s are more educated than their male peers overall.

But this is a side story. Exhibit lower rates of employment, 83% to 76%. And if you want to go further down that rabbit hole and dig into pay discrepancies, men are still making more money than women who have a higher education. But that's a different story for a different show. My point is, is that now that we're seeing this shift happening in many different countries around the world where women are more educated than men, then probably

Naturally, that means when they get married, they're more likely to have a higher education level than their husband. Not always, but if the statistics hold true from one field to the other field, then it's not hard to see why.

That's interesting, but I don't know if I would jump into that conclusion for the Chinese study because it still only looked at those who actually tied the knot in this country. And what explains this major improvement in more women achieving college education?

So according to Cheng, who conducted this latest study, he attributed the trend to the growing number of Chinese women gaining a higher education. Same trend. Yeah, exactly. Ever since 2009, women have outnumbered men in both

undergraduate and postgraduate programs at Chinese universities. So this is like a reversal of the gender education gap that has also taken place in several Western countries as well. And on a policy level, China's gross enrollment rate of higher education has also showed improvements in general, especially after the action plan on the

revitalization of education was issued by the minister of education in 1999. So already at the turn of the century, this is happening and it's slowly affecting generations and generations of female students. And ever since then, the scale of higher education in China began to expand.

Quickly, in 2002, the gross entrance rate reached 15%, indicating that China was entering the era of mass higher education. And then a decade later, by 2012, the rate rose to 30%, all pointing to the same fact

that more and more higher educational opportunities were given to both genders. So I believe this is where we kind of need to attribute the trend to because nowadays women are receiving, say girls are receiving equal educational chances as boys. To reference that American story that I brought up a moment ago from CNBC from 2017, at that time from

from the National Center for Education Statistics, 56% of college students were women at that time. So they out, the number of college students, the female to male ratio, women outnumbered them in university. And therefore we're seeing that trend. What's interesting is,

to me, is that this supersedes culture. We're not talking about Asia versus North America here. We're seeing this trend all over the world, it seems. Well, this is something definitely to do with policy, with the general climate and

of a society as well as educational resources available to all. These are factors that are at play here. And when you look at China's higher education, well, only did college education resume fully for all since 1976. And it only took years

this many decades for women to actively participate and receive a proper basic education, mandatory education, and then have the ability to compete fairly and join

higher education. And we're seeing the results of that here in China. And also, if you look at the population, also gender ratio of those joining the different levels of education, it reflects the bigger picture too.

Yeah, in primary school stage, I believe the net enrollment rate of primary school aged girls and boys were all around 99.9% in 2022. And then when we're looking at the high school stage, also in 2022, there were over 21 million high school female students, which takes up almost 50% of all high school students here in China. And in vocational school stage,

Still, back in 2022, there were 7.5 million and 7.9 million female students in secondary vocational schools and higher undergraduate and junior colleges, respectively. And last but not least, in the higher educational stage, there were 29 million female students in higher educational institutions, taking up 50%. So...

Let's say this is a half-half kind of situation, and we definitely see the increase of female students here in the Chinese educational scenario. Yeah, that's interesting because the statistics that I gave from the United States and from Korea found that the women were outnumbering the men, right? Mm-hmm.

Those statistics that you just shared, Yushan, you could have easily said the number of men in those classrooms is roughly 50%, meaning no one outnumbers the other. So back to your point, He Yang, you were right when you said, well, maybe in other countries, those statistics might add up when you look at the number of female students in classrooms versus males and then transfer those over to marriages.

But if we talk about the Chinese classrooms, those aren't the same numbers. It's basically 50-50. But yet now women are, again, I don't love this term, but marrying down, statistically speaking. See what I mean? The numbers don't add up here. So there's something more behind it. I think so, too. Also, to circle back to a point you made just now, Steve,

What do you think is contributing to, in all those various countries, that women tend to do better in school? I don't know about population numbers and I don't know about school performance either. So I'm not sure if it's fair to say that they outperform their male counterparts.

in the classroom. But if we do look at the number of people who are graduating with certain types of degrees, for example, in Australia, 61% of Australian bachelor degree graduates each year are now women.

55% of new PhD and master's degree holders are women. So they're statistically, they are outnumbering the men. It doesn't necessarily mean that they're outperforming them, you know, test taking and things like that. But they're certainly outnumbering them in terms of their degrees. So what's the reason? You made the point earlier, Huiyang, about how a long time ago,

women started to pursue their education perhaps more so than they did before. It became more important to them. Again, I'm speculating here, but now we've talked about changing trends in society where perhaps people are focusing more on their careers. Women are focusing more on their careers and their education now, maybe than they were before, where priority number one may have been getting married or starting a family or something like that. Maybe it's due to a priority shift in cultures,

different cultures around the world where that's become less of a priority and it's been replaced by education. Yeah, I totally agree with you on that, Steve. What I noticed is that more and more families nowadays are willing to invest in their children's education, even at a very early stage. So from the cultivation point of view of the parents, they already have this idea that education is an important way to change the children's destiny and that both families

for the boys and for the girls, they should be provided with equal attention and support. So at that level, I do see the changing of perspectives as time goes by. - This might be a side point talking about unintended consequences. The only child policy might have benefited the girls born in especially cities or counties.

where there is educational resources available for girls. And given when you only have one child in the family, for a lot of parents, especially in East Asia, where parents do prioritize kids' education, then it's almost like a no-brainer. They shower resources of the family on the kid

on the girl, or regardless of the gender, so that she or he will do well academically. And in our traditional Confucius-influenced culture, better education usually makes you think that, oh, better future in terms of

pay in terms of your existence and presence in society as such. And also, I wonder, maybe girls doing well in school might be explained even earlier on in standardized educations.

For little girls, they often develop language and reading skills earlier, which can give them an advantage in school settings focused on literacy and communication. Also, schools generally reward orderly, organized behaviors that align more closely with girls' socialization. And just the setup of schools

schools, standardized education, in a way might benefit girls a little bit more than boys. That's research going on around the world. Just to reference the numbers that you presented earlier in different countries, it seems to speak to a similar story. And guys, why does this make

Why do you think this is getting the researchers' attention that, oh, women's higher education attainment rates has something to do with further implications in marriage and other aspects in society? I think ultimately this is a changing of social structure in a way, because now that we're talking about females, males,

quote unquote, marrying down on their spouses with the female part having a higher educational level, that kind of impacts the family planning decisions in a way. Because in this way, the way I see it is that women now could have a bigger say or a bigger right of speech in deciding on the family that she wants to build for herself or for her individual family. Say how many kids you want, what kind of family that you want to build with your spouse. So

And unlike previously when female are so relying on their male counterparts, nowadays it's a shared responsibility, it's a shared task and shared decision-making process as well. Mm-hmm.

I think we're making some assumptions with this topic as well. You know, women are marrying down. Okay. Are they marrying? We'd have to look at marriage statistics ages. Are they marrying people who are in the group that they studied? Are they marrying someone who is at the same age, meaning they've gone through the same educational process and the woman is, has happens to be more educated than the men or they're

is the woman marrying a man that's perhaps younger than her, who hasn't finished his education just yet. I'm only playing devil's advocate here. I'm saying that there are different ways to look at this. One of the things that I thought was interesting, data shows kind of a shift, maybe it's a shift, maybe it's not, on how men see their potential partners. They say that male respondents in a survey that was conducted

They have a higher acceptance of having partners older than them. Really? Yeah, 69. This is a high number. 69.8% of male respondents said, yep, no problem. Having a partner older than I am is not an issue for me. They think age differences don't really affect marriage and love. But only 54.1% of female respondents said, okay, if the man is younger than me, that's okay for me.

31%, a little over 31% said that the age gap will affect communication and interaction. Whereas only 6.4% of men said the same thing. And this is from China. To me, 54% of female respondents accept younger partners. Hello, that is a huge percentage. Because traditionally women didn't want to

married guys who are younger than them, I would think. As a relatively younger Chinese woman, I don't belong to that 54%. But can I also just make a point? It doesn't say how much older. Right. Right? These days,

These days, if you think men or women, a couple of years younger or older, that's nothing, right? Which again, this seems to supersede culture. The last time I looked at marriage statistics from Canada, the average age of marriage, I think it was around 30 for men, 28 for women, 31 for men, 29 for women, something like that. But inside those numbers, you can see the man is older than the woman. And that's kind of typical of...

of how it goes around the world. I don't know why. That's a whole other pot of beans to dig into. But with this topic and with these statistics, there's just so much to unpack here.

And yeah, it's not just on the age differentiation, but also on the family division of labor as well, because according to the same source Steve just quoted on, about 51% of male respondents can accept the new type of family division of labor, which means that men...

lead inside while women lead outside which is like controversial to the stereotypical view of the guys should be working out while the girls stay inside to manage family affairs. That seems, that feels so archaic now, doesn't it? But also as somebody who actually dates in China,

Really, I wonder if those guys have a different interpretation of what men leads inside or outside means. Because what did you say? Over half of those respondents, it sounds like a super progressive bunch. But in real life, I do question, do that many men lead?

Are they willing to accept that? Yeah, again, what does this mean? Men lead inside, women lead outside. Is it like, are you a house husband? Or is it like you do housework just as...

Your wife would do. You contribute just as much. Or does it mean that your wife makes more than you do, financially speaking? Can I ask you a question? Of course. If you don't mind. My sister used to be a hotel executive. And I remember her complaining to me when she was in her dating days. She's married with children now. But she said she found it hard to date because men...

and this is in Canada, men were often threatened by her position and her success. She said they wouldn't outrightly say it, but she could feel it. And she had a very hard time having a successful relationship because career-wise...

She was an executive for a big hotel chain and many men found that threatening. I wonder, you know, you just mentioned as someone who's dating in Beijing, do you feel that sometimes as a successful career woman? Wow. First of all, that's like showering accolades at me. I am not a huge executive of a big chain company. You're a very successful career woman, though. Oh.

First of all, I don't see myself to be all that successful or whatever it is. So it's not really bothering me that much. You know what might be threatening to men? You work in a job that requires you to be vocal. A woman with a mind and speaks her mind for her job. And a microphone. So that part...

Certainly doesn't make me feel like it is a strong suit in the dating market. Oh, interesting. They might fear, uh-oh, am I going to be the topic of the next segment on Roundtable? Exactly. Well, you know what? That's going to happen. It's just I'm not going to name your name. And traditionally, women have been more likely to, I'll reference this, none of us seem to like, marry up in terms of social status, education, or income, a phenomenon known as hypergamy.

And this trend is often rooted in historical social structures where men were seen as the primary breadwinners and women sought financial security or upward mobility through marriage. But on the other hand, men have traditionally been more likely to quote unquote marry down, and that's called hypogamy, or marry within their social strata. And these patterns are

changing today as we've demonstrated on today's show with increasing numbers of women outpacing men in education creating shifts in marriage dynamics however economic disparities

such as the gender pay gap, still influence these trends. And the latest figures we found is that the gender pay gap is close to 13% in this country. And this is according to a study from Jalpin in 2024. So talking about these changes as the first step,

But the next step is we need to talk about or we need to see changes in some of these more structural and systematic inequalities. I agree. This is from a website called AllSorter. And this is the headline. U.S. employees are 93.6% more likely to have a male CEO.

They analyzed 1,000 of the world's largest companies and they found that of the 1,000 companies, only 6.4%, 64 of the company's CEOs were women. 936 were male. So I think we're going to see the shift start to head in the other direction considering women have higher education perhaps now than men in many countries around the world.

While gender equality is still a work in process, women's rising education attainment is already reshaping the marriage and dating market, challenging old norms and opening doors for change.