ABSTRACT

Partners choose each other on the basis of many characteristics. Social status is one of them. A person’s social status can be ascribed, e.g. derived from the position of her or his parents, or achieved, e.g. derived from her or his own occupation. According to the status-attainment hypothesis, during the nineteenth century achieved status increased in importance and ascribed status decreased, especially in regions that experienced more modernization. In contrast, the romantic-love hypothesis predicts that modernization caused a decrease in the importance of both ascribed and achieved status. This paper tests these claims. We use data on all the marriages that took place in all the municipalities in six (of eleven) Dutch provinces between 1813 and 1922. These couple-level data are supplemented with municipal-level data on several dimensions of modernization. We find that men’s occupational status did indeed become more important and the occupational status of their fathers less important in the second half of the nineteenth century, when modernization accelerated. In general, modernization is positively related to partner selection based on achieved characteristics and negatively related to partner selection based on ascribed characteristics. However, especially in larger cities, some support is also found for the romantic-love hypothesis.

摘要

合作伙伴根据许多特征相互选择。社会地位就是其中之一。一个人的社会地位可以归因于例如来自其父母的地位，或者可以归因于例如源自其自身的职业。根据地位获得假说，在19世纪，获得地位的重要性增加，归属地位下降，特别是在经历了更多现代化的地区。相反，浪漫爱情假设预测，现代化导致归属和已获得地位的重要性降低。本文测试了这些主张。我们使用1813年至1922年间荷兰的六个省（十一个）中所有城市的所有婚姻数据。这些夫妇级别的数据在现代化的几个方面得到了市政级别数据的补充。我们发现，在现代化加速发展的十九世纪下半叶，男性的职业地位确实变得越来越重要，而父亲的职业地位却变得越来越不重要。通常，现代化与基于已实现特征的合作伙伴选择正相关，而与基于归因特性的合作伙伴选择负相关。但是，尤其是在大城市中，也为浪漫爱情假设提供了一些支持。现代化与基于已实现特征的合作伙伴选择正相关，而与归因于特征的合作伙伴选择负相关。但是，尤其是在大城市中，也为浪漫爱情假设提供了一些支持。现代化与基于已实现特征的合作伙伴选择正相关，而与归因于特征的合作伙伴选择负相关。但是，尤其是在大城市中，也为浪漫爱情假设提供了一些支持。