Would-be mums told to ‘marry down’

CLEVER women should consider marrying less intelligent men if they want to start a family, researchers are advising.

And they may need to widen their search for a partner as there are simply not enough brainy men to go round, warned the author of a report that found a growing number of professional women are freezing their eggs because they can’t find ‘Mr Right’.

‘There are fewer educated men in the world for educated women to partner with,’ said Marcia Inhorn, professor of anthropology at Yale University. ‘So if women want to find a partner with whom they can have children, they need a more expansive notion of who is Mr Right. A good partner might not be exactly someone of similar educational background and socioeconomic circumstances but there can still be really wonderful relationships with men who are interested in marriage and parenthood.’

According to the World Bank, 70 countries have more women educated to university level than men. In Ireland, women now marginally outnumber men at undergraduate level (51% to 49%) but that grows to a 55% to 45% gap at postgraduate level.

Those who graduated in 2000 are now in their mid to late-30s and, according to Professor Inhorn, many are turning to egg freezing because they are unable to find partners of similar intelligence and educational background.

Her study of 150 highly-educated women who chose to freeze their eggs found 85% did so due to ‘lack of a stable partner’.