• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.33-50
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• 2002

This study examines cross-national patterns of asymmetry of marriage tables with respect to educational level and tries to measure the degree of gender inequality across nations. A Primary assumption of the study is that gender inequality inhibits symmetric marriage between men and women. As men and women differ more in status, the rate of symmetric marriage between them declines thus producing asymmetric marriage with respect to social status. More specifically, the main object of the study is to develop statistical models and index with which to assess the patterns and degree of asymmetric marriage. Additionally, it is intended to assess the appropriateness of several theoretical perspectives for explaining these variations identified by the statistical models. Two most important such perspectives are industrialism and theory of politics and culture. To answer these questions, this study relies on twenty-seven marriage tables with respect to educational level, some from published tables, and some extracted from other sources. The main findings of the study are: (1) compared to less industrialized countries, more industrialized countries have lower degrees of asymmetric marriage(gender inequality) with respect to educational level, and (2) other things being equal, differences in politics and culture seem to have the some impact on marriage pattern; for instance, social democracy and state socialism reduce the degree of asymmetric marriage while the high emphasis on gender-based hierarchy in Asian countries seems to increase it In short, these results suggest a weaker or modified version of industrialists That is, while with economic growth most nations show a decline in the degrees of asymmetric marriage with respect to social status, for some nations the degrees of asymmetric marriage are affected by their specific politics or cultures.