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What College Women Want in a Marriage Partner.

2009; Project Innovation Austin; Volume: 43; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

2691-3887

Sarah O'Reilly, David Knox, Marty E. Zusman,

Higher Education Research Studies

One-hundred-and-ninety seven undergraduates at a large southeastern university completed a confidential anonymous 22-item questionnaire designed to assess the qualities college want in their prospective marital partners. The data revealed that (when compared to what men want in a partner) were significantly more likely to prefer men who were considerate, dependable, and intelligent. Women are moving away from viewing potential partners exclusively in instrumental terms of ability to provide money for them, as well as subsequent children, and toward viewing men in terms of more expressive qualities such as consideration, dependability, and intelligence. Implications and limitations of the data are suggested. ********** Oklahoma Crude is a vintage film featuring the late George C. Scott and Faye Dunaway. The story takes place on top of a hill where Faye Dunaway has hired George C. Scott to protect her and her oil rig from imposing villains (led by Jack Palance) who want her property. One scene includes a drunken unshaven Scott lumbering over to the cabin where Dunaway is staying. She says to him as he gets within six inches of her face, know what you want, to which he replies, No you don't. She then says, Yes I do.... I know what men want! The scene reflects cultural assumptions about men and women. This study is not about men but about what want in a prospective marital partner. Previous researchers on what want in a future partner have found that place higher emphasis on financial and emotional stability, good parenting skills, and equal or higher education (Lewis and Oppenheimer, 2000; Ganong and Coleman, 1992). A team of researchers also noted that seek an attractive partner (Lacey, Reifman, Scott, Harris, and Fitzpatrick, 2004). Sample and Methods The sample consisted of 197 undergraduates at a large southeastern university who responded to an anonymous 22-item questionnaire designed to assess the value men and assign to various qualities. Seventy-one percent of the respondents were female; twenty-nine percent were male. The median age of the respondents was 19 (age range 17 to 48) with most (80%) reporting that they were white and 20% nonwhite. Most (95%) had never been married. In regard to current relationship, almost a quarter (24%) were not involved with anyone, 14% were dating different people, 41% were dating or emotionally involved with one person. Seventeen percent were engaged or living together and 4% were married. In order to determine whether differences existed between men and in their preferences, difference of means tests were run. We note that additional tests were made to assure that the ordinal categories (Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree) were capable of being treated as interval for the means tests and they were. In each case, the appropriate t-test and degrees of freedom have not been included for the sake of brevity. What is included are the means for each category of the independent variable and the appropriate significance level. Significant Findings and Discussion Analysis of the data revealed several significant differences. 1. Women want a marital partner who is considerate. Women were significantly (p That place a higher value on their potential marital partner being considerate is not surprising. Men as considerate partners may be more likely to favor an egalitarian relationship. Geary, Vigil and Byrd-Craven (2004) reviewed Buss's research findings which showed that women rated a prospective husband who was kind, understanding, and intelligent more highly than a prospective husband who was none of these but had the potential to become culturally successful (p, 31). …