外媒關注：越來越多高學歷女性“下嫁”？背后原因令人深思…

在當今社會，越來越多女性走進高校，拿下學位，投身職場，成為各自領域中的佼佼者。然而，隨著學歷和地位的提升，她們在情感關系中卻面臨一個新困擾：找對象變難了，特別是想找一個“門當戶對”的另一半。

你會介意伴侶學歷比你低嗎？這是許多高學歷女性正在面對的現實難題。

近期，多家外媒媒體關注了“女性下嫁”現象的上升趨勢——即越來越多女性在婚戀中選擇學歷、收入、社會地位不如自己的男性伴侶。

為什么會出現這樣的變化？女性真的更難“往上找”了嗎？而這，又對當代年輕人的戀愛、婚姻甚至生育意愿帶來了什么影響？

More and more women are "marrying down" when it comes to education, said The Atlantic . Marriages had been moving in a "more egalitarian direction" since the mid-20th century, when more women began attending university and entering the job market.

《大西洋月刊》指出，越來越多女性在婚姻中出現“學歷向下兼容”的趨勢。自20世紀中葉以來，隨著女性逐漸走入大學課堂和職場，婚姻模式曾一度朝著“更加平等”的方向發展。

But now the trend of women "partnering up with their educational equals" seems to be reversing, with a growing number practicing "hypogamy" – wedding someone of a lower social class or education level.

然而，如今女性與學歷相當伴侶結婚的趨勢正在發生逆轉，越來越多女性開始“低嫁”——也就是與社會階層或教育水平較低的對象結婚。

Too picky？

太挑剔了？

Women now outnumber men in higher education in almost all developed countries. In the UK, more women were accepted into university than men for the first time in 1996, and that gap has only grown; in 2024, female students outnumbered male students by 28%, according to government figures.

在幾乎所有發達國家中，女性在高等教育中的比例都已超過男性。以英國為例，早在1996年，進入大學的女性人數首次超過男性；而到了2024年，政府數據顯示，這一差距進一步擴大，女大學生人數比男生多出28%。

A 2023 study from the US-based Institute for Family Studies found 45% of single women with a degree said their relationship status was due to an "inability to find someone who met their expectations", said the paper.

據報道，美國“家庭研究協會”在2023年發布的一項研究發現，45%擁有學位的單身女性表示，自己單身的原因是“找不到符合預期的伴侶”。

Romantic

浪漫悲觀主義

Women's academic success, coupled with the "malebreadwinner norm" that remains a lingering "cultural anchor", gives the "shrinking pool ofmore successful men tremendous power", said Sarah Bernstein in The New York Times. Social media is "rife with male fantasies", including "beautiful, submissive tradwives" embracing traditional gender roles.

《紐約時報》記者莎拉·伯恩斯坦、指出，女性在學術上的成功，加上“男性養家”這一仍未消散的“文化錨點”，使得“那一小撮更成功的男性掌握了巨大的擇偶權力”。社交媒體上充斥著男性幻想，比如那些“美麗、順從、回歸傳統角色的主婦式女性”。

But while a small group of rich, successful men are "reaping the benefits", others find themselves struggling to compete in the dating market. "Enter themanosphere", a space filled with "romantic pessimism" and the idea that "modern women are not to be trusted".

而當少數富有成功的男性正在享受紅利時，更多男性卻發現自己在約會市場上處于劣勢。于是，所謂的“男性圈”應運而生——這是一個充滿“浪漫悲觀主義”的空間，里面充斥著“現代女性不值得信任”的觀點。

And women themselves are feeling "similarlydespondent" about dating. In fact, according to a study by the Survey Center on American Life, 41% of single people in 2023 had "no interest in dating at all".

而女性在約會方面也同樣感到“情緒低落”。根據“美國生活調查中心”的一項研究，2023年有41%的單身人士表示他們“對約會完全沒有興趣”。

It's "too soon" to know whether this "gulf in attitudes" among young people today will negatively impact the already "tumbling birth rates", said The Economist. But "early signs are discouraging". Policymakers must tackle the "underlying problems that are driving young men and women apart", starting with figuring out how to make education work for underperforming boys at school.

《經濟學人》指出，現在判斷這種“年輕人之間在觀念上的巨大分歧”是否會進一步影響本已“持續下滑的出生率”還“為時過早”。但“初步跡象并不樂觀”。政策制定者必須正視“正在導致年輕男性與女性漸行漸遠的深層問題”，其中一個關鍵起點是：如何幫助在學校表現不佳的男孩提升教育水平。

It's not all bad, though. There is some evidence that beliefs are "evolving", said The Atlantic. Christine Schwartz, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin, analysed data from the World Values Survey and found that in the countries where hypogamy is more prevalent, people were less likely to agree with the statement "if a woman earns more money than her husband, it's almost certain to cause problems".

不過，事情也并非全是負面的。《大西洋月刊》指出，有跡象表明人們的觀念正在“逐漸演變”。威斯康星大學社會學教授克里斯汀·施瓦茨分析了“世界價值觀調查”的數據，發現那些“女性下嫁”現象更普遍的國家，人們更不認同“如果女性收入高于丈夫，幾乎一定會產生問題”這種說法。

And while hypogamous marriages used to be more likely than others to end in divorce, recent analyses of marriages in Europe and the US suggests this is "no longer the case". These trends don't necessarily prove a major shift is under way. "But they might offer a reason to becautiously optimisticabout society's ability to adjust to new realities."

此外，過去“下嫁”婚姻比其他婚姻更容易離婚，但最近對歐美婚姻的研究顯示，“這種情況已經不再成立”。這些趨勢不一定意味著社會正在經歷一場劇烈的轉變，“但它們至少提供了一點謹慎樂觀的理由”，說明社會或許有能力逐步適應這些新的現實。

詞?匯?解?析

marry down：指在婚姻中配偶的教育或社會地位低于自己

hypogamy：一個更正式的術語，意為“下嫁”，即女性嫁給社會階層或教育程度較低的男性

romantic pessimism：對戀愛和親密關系持悲觀看法，常出現在關于“約會難”“婚戀焦慮”的語境中

breadwinner norm：指“養家糊口者的角色”，傳統上由男性擔任。

a shrinking pool of…“越來越少的……”，常用于人口、人才、資源等場景

manosphere：男性圈（以男性權利為導向的博客和網站）

despondent：沮喪的

tumbling birth rates：快速下滑的出生率，tumble本意是“翻滾、跌倒”，在這里用作動詞的現在分詞，表示 "迅速下降、暴跌"

cautiously optimistic：謹慎樂觀的，表達在看好某事的同時仍保留一定的懷疑或保守態度，是媒體報道和正式寫作中常見表達

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