Contingencies of Marriage to High-Status Men

This paper develops a four-variable “opportunity model” regulating women's access to men of high social status. Hypotheses based on occupational attainment, educational attainment, socioeconomic background, and community size are tested using longitudinal data from two surveys of Wisconsin high school seniors in 1957 and 1964. The analysis focuses on <it>296</it> girls who selected nursing as their occupational choice in 1957 and were married at the time of the follow-up survey in 1964. It is concluded that, of these four variables, socioeconomic background is the most important determinant of husband's status. Occupational attainment is of lesser overall importance but still crucial in some cases. For example, noncollege-going girls who become nurses marry high-status men just as often as college-going girls who do not become nurses. In this sense, becoming a nurse “equalizes” their opportunity for access to high-status men. These and other findings are discussed in relation to the question of how women gain access to the upper levels of the stratification system through marriage to high-status men.