Shared gender role beliefs influence who people marry, study suggests
Posted on Wednesday 25 March 2026
People are highly likely to form relationships with partners who hold similar beliefs about the roles of men and women in society, according to a study that used data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study.
Researchers at the University of York and the University of Essex found that attitudes towards issues such as whether mothers should work full-time or whether both partners should contribute financially play a major role in partner choice.
The authors argue that individuals who marry partners with similar beliefs derive greater benefits from marriage, which likely leads to higher marital satisfaction and a lower probability of divorce.
Benefits of marriage
The study showed that the significance of gender role attitudes in a relationship has previously been overlooked in research, but is in fact twice as important in explaining who marries whom than personality traits, health and physical appearance, and just as important as education levels.
Dr Khushboo Surana, from the University of York’s Department of Economics and Related Studies, said: “For decades, economists have shown that people tend to marry partners with similar levels of education. But our new analysis indicates that similarity in gender role attitudes may be even more important in determining compatibility within marriages.
“Matching on gender attitudes contributed about 23% more to explaining the benefits couples gain from marriage than matching on education.”
Divided responsbilities
The study also found that couples’ shared beliefs strongly influence how responsibilities are divided within households. Partners who both hold more traditional views are significantly more likely to follow a “male breadwinner” model. In these households, men typically spend more time in paid employment, while women take on a larger share of childcare and domestic work.
By contrast, couples with more egalitarian beliefs tend to share childcare, housework and paid work more evenly. They are also more likely to share financial decision-making.
Professor Cheti Nicoletti, from the University of York’s Department of Economic and Related Studies, said: “Age, gender role attitudes and education together explain about 66% of the gains from marriage.
“Couples who share similar beliefs often find it easier to agree on who takes care of children, who handles housework, and who brings home the income.
“But this also means that when a woman with traditional views about gender roles marries a partner who shares those beliefs, those views can become reinforced. In many cases, this results in women taking on a larger share of childcare during the marriage.”
Father as caregiver
By contrast, the researchers estimate that if people were paired randomly, rather than choosing partners with similar beliefs, households would be less likely to follow traditional patterns. This is because the presence of just one progressive spouse tends to promote more equal sharing of domestic tasks.
In this scenario, the share of fathers acting as primary caregivers could rise from about 3% to more than 11%.
While marrying partners with similar beliefs, however, may help reduce marital conflict, it can also reinforce gender inequality in the division of childcare, earnings and housework when both partners hold traditional views about the role of women in society.
Low conflict
Achieving both low levels of marital conflict and a more equal division of responsibilities would therefore likely require a broader shift of both partners towards more progressive beliefs about the role of women within the family. Without such changes, existing social norms are likely to continue reinforcing traditional divisions of labour.
Professor Marco Francesconi, from the University of Essex’s Department of Economics, said: “We also examined whether couples’ beliefs become more similar after marriage. Their findings suggest this is unlikely, as similar attitudes were already evident among younger couples and could be predicted from family background before marriage.
“This indicates that people are actively selecting partners with similar views about gender roles.”
The findings will be presented at the Bank of Spain on 25 March 2026.
