I was reading an article in “The Asian Age� . Its OP-ED Page’s headline “It’s official, men don’t like to marry high IQ women� caught my attention. The writer claimed to notice the trend how “powerful men took up with the young women whose job it was to tend to them and care for them in some way: their secretaries, assistants, nannies, caterers, flight attendants, researchers and fact checkers.� …………………..�men think that women with important jobs are more likely to cheat on them�……..The article quoted Dr. Stephanie Brown, the lead author of this study, “The hypothesis is that there are evolutionary pressures on males to take steps to minimize risk of raising off-spring that are not their own.�
The article also throws light on another interesting point, “Men did not show a preference when it comes to one-night stands.�
I know the research is focused on certain points and can’t view many things in wider perspective. Since this new study was conducted by psychology researchers at the University of Michigan, they studied it in the purview of psychology.
I wonder, if this is entirely true? Only the women with important jobs are prone to cheating? What about women, who are housewives and spend a larger part of their time unobserved by anyone? Doesn’t availability of time and boredom lead to extra-marital affairs and cheating?
Anyway, I think this article has ignored a very important aspect. Right from the birth (midwives claim they can foretell the sex of child on the basis of his/her first cry!). The minutes a male child steps into this world, he should be expected to cry louder than females and dull their voices!!
Right from the childhood a boy is expected “ not to cry like a girl�, “not be a sissy�, “be stronger than his sister�, “behave like a man� etc. At a very tender age expectations from parents, friends and society start shooting sky high. They never expect from a girl to look after their parents or to earn for her family or be a pillar of strength for anybody. But a boy can’t escape all this. He is often told to be in control because he has to look after his family. Boys are not even expected to marry a girl who is taller than him! So girl having a higher IQ is definitely out of question for a long term relationship!
I think a boy is conditioned from a very tender age to be better than a girl. This societal pressure plays a very important role when he looks for a long term relationship. He can’t escape from expectations thrust upon him since he arrived in this world. For an affair or one-night stand it alright to have an intelligent girl. But life-long commitment with a higher IQ partner, its another story.
Men and women look for different things in a mate. Women want good providers, so IQ counts. Men want caretakers, where emotional intelligence and social skills are more important than IQ.
Is this difference based on biology or culture? Who really knows? I do know however that caretaker roles have been dismissed as “unimportant” for too long, because they are not glamorous or well paying.