SEXUAL SELECTION, ASSORTATIVE MATING, ETC. 231 



Passing to people of a higher grade it may be said that medioc- 

 rity tends to mate with mediocrity and that superior types 

 tend to select their mates among the superior. Common stand- 

 ards, agreement in tastes and similar educational attainments, 

 doubtless have a marked effect in bringing about unions between 

 those of similar inherent endowments. By thus limiting mar- 

 riages to certain castes assortative mating tends to bring about 

 the differentiation of the race into a number of divergent stocks. 

 Whether it conduces to racial advance or the reverse depends 

 upon various accessory circumstances. Per se it is a condition of 

 divergence rather than racial improvement. Naturally the 

 character of the race would be very markedly affected by varia- 

 tions in the frequency of age of marriage in the castes which 

 assortative mating tends to create. Among the intellectual 

 classes, while we meet with the tendency of like to mate with like, 

 we find the frequency of marriage much reduced, and the age of 

 marriage increased. Data previously cited in the discussion of 

 differential fecundity indicate a lamentably low marriage rate 

 among college women. This is probably due to several causes, 

 among which may be mentioned the higher qualifications which 

 the college woman demands of the man she marries, her greater 

 financial independence, and therefore the less temptation to 

 marry for support; and to some extent, as some writers have 

 pointed out, the fact that unattractive women may be more apt 

 to go to college than their more favored sisters. While some may 

 take a college course because they do not marry or are not likely 

 to marry, I think that most people connected with educational 

 institutions for several years will agree that the proportion of this 

 class has materially diminished in the last two decades. 



The situation revealed by Miss H. D. Murphy's study of the 

 women of Washington Seminary is typical. The decrease of 

 marriage rates and the increase of careers other than home mak- 

 ing which women follow are shown in the following table: 



