No trophy wife for successful men with fat paychecks
Highlights
Men with highly successful careers and fat wallets may rarely end up with a \'trophy wife\', a new study suggests.
Men with highly successful careers and fat wallets may rarely end up with a 'trophy wife', a new study suggests. Most people marry someone who has a similar degree of attractiveness and success as they do, researchers have found. The 'trophy wife' stereotype means that attractive women marry rich men, placing little importance on their other traits, including physical appearance, and that men look for pretty wives but don't care about their education or earnings.
However, the research by University of Notre Dame sociologist Elizabeth McClintock shows the stereotype is largely a myth fuelled by selective observation that reinforces sexist stereotypes and trivializes women's careers. McClintock resolved the paradox between the trophy wife stereotype and the evidence that couples match on both physical attractiveness and socioeconomic status.
The study used a sample of young couples in which both partners were interviewed and rated for physical attractiveness. "I find that handsome men partner with pretty women and successful men partner with successful women," said McClintock. "So, on average, high-status men do have better-looking wives, but this is because they themselves are considered better looking — perhaps because they are less likely to be overweight and more likely to afford braces, nice clothes and trips to the dermatologist, etc. Secondly, the strongest force by far in partner selection is similarity — in education, race, religion and physical attractiveness," she said.
McClintock's research shows that there is not, in fact, a general tendency for women to trade beauty for money. That is not to say trophy-wife marriages never happen, just that they are rare.
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