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Report from the ‘Marriageable Mate’ Front

By Richard Whitmire — August 02, 2010 1 min read
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The Washington Post today does a good job reporting on the impact of the marriageable mate dilemma among black middle class women. In Prince George’s County, which for many black professionals has become the preferred suburb, the neighborhoods are filling up with single women with college degrees and good jobs.

The reason: twice as many black women as men earn college degrees. Given the many reasons women have for wanting to find an equally educated mate, that should not be surprising. My question: how long before we start seeing similar articles about college educated white women. Among whites: 57 percent of the four-year degrees go to women. So the math: the marriageable mate dilemma is already playing out among whites -- it’s just less visible.

From the Post article:

Prince George's residents personify many demographic and socioeconomic trends playing out among African Americans on a national level. In 2008, about half of the black households in the county made more than $75,000 a year, more than a quarter had four-year college degrees and unmarried women far outnumbered their married counterparts.

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