The trait that defines Australia's 1.1 million power couples

Link copiedShareShare articleTwo aspects stand out in Tanvi Patel's recollection of her first date with the man who would eventually become her husband. First, it was the longest social encounter she'd had with anyone, ever. "We spent almost 12 hours together," the 30-year-old says. And second, Darvin, who doesn't drink coffee or milk, had a cappuccino. Tanvi agrees he was probably trying to impress her but is adamant that a man drinking milk does not rank highly on her list of impressive feats. "I was slightly pissed that he didn't communicate [his intolerance] properly," says the marketing executive. Darvin, a software engineer, admits the move was somewhat self-defeating. "I just didn't want her to think I was some kind of weirdo." Then, he adds: "That was weird on my part." (He maintains it was "for sure" worth the stomach ache that followed.) Darvin and Tanvi are among 1.14 million so-called power couples in Australia, in which both partners are university-educated, according to an ABC analysis of exclusive census data. The ranks of these education power couples swelled nearly fourfold in the two decades to 2021, mirroring a trend across much of the developed world. For sociologists and economists, power couples can be defined in terms of education, income or both. The ABC analysis considers only the level of education of each partner. Darvin has a master's degree in IT management. Tanvi has a master's in urban planning. Neither specifically planned to marry a partner with the same level of education, but neither would have considered marrying someone who didn't have a university degree. "That would be a deal breaker for me, honestly … a bachelor's degree would be a benchmark for me," Darvin says. "She could be studying arts or English or philosophy, whatever … but I feel that [a university education] at least shows that you are working towards a future self, that you have certain goals or certain things planned out in your life." Tanvi credits Darvin's university education with equipping him with both "hard and soft skills", from emotional maturity to doing household chores and navigating tricky social situations. "Education comes with a lot of other experiences. It's not just getting a degree. You are surviving through a lot of challenges … that can be emotionally torturous," she laughs. "You have to do things that you don't like." I point out that plenty of people who didn't go to university do things they don't like, and lots of people without a degree have life goals and future plans. It comes down to power, the 29-year-old says, finally. "I feel like if we are both equal, then there are less power dynamics between us." It's a sentiment shared by many couples across advanced economies, especially younger ones, research shows. But it also raises uncomfortable questions about whether increased equality within marriages means greater inequality across society. The top choice of partner at nearly every level of education is someone with the same level of education, the ABC analysis reveals. The trend has profound implications for social inequality, experts warn. This preference to "marry within the group" is strongest at the top and bottom of the education ladder. Those with no educational attainment are over 80 times as likely to partner with each other compared to the average, while those with doctoral degrees are nearly 15 times as likely to marry each other compared to the average. (The average is the rate of marriage to that group across the partnered population.) "When people form marriages, they form intimate relationships, not just with each other, but with families as well," says University of Wisconsin-Madison sociologist Christine Schwartz. "And so it really can tell us something about the openness of societies in terms of forming intimate unions across different groups." (Throughout this story, we'll use the terms "marriage" and "partnership" interchangeably to refer to a "couple relationship". In the romantic language of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, this is defined as "two people usually residing in the same household who share a social, economic and emotional bond usually associated with marriage.") Across Australia, 1.76 million couples — that's more than one third — comprise two partners with the same level of education. The pink diagonal line running across both charts above shows people across the education spectrum marry within their group at above-average rates. Those with a master's degree are 3.8 times as likely to marry someone else with a master's degree compared to the average. Those with a bachelor's degree are 1.9 times as likely to marry someone else with a bachelor's degree. Those who finished senior high school (years 10–12) are 1.8 times as likely to marry within their group, while those who did not go beyond year 9 are 7.3 times as likely to marry within their group. We've crunched the numbers for more than 43,000 job combinations and

The trait that defines Australia's 1.1 million power couples

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The trait that defines Australia's 1.1 million power couples

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