younger woman

Older Man + Younger Woman = Happiness?

November 3, 2009 at 3:45 pm, by Jennifer Castoro

With all the talk of May-December romances, “cougars” and older men with much (much, much) younger women in the news of late, age in relationships is a hot topic. Researchers at University of Bath, in England, say that the traditional older man-younger woman pairing is best for long-term marriage success, but with a twist. Their study followed 1,000 couples and found that those with the greatest chance at lasting happiness involved men who were five or more years older than their wives, and those wives were also more educated than their husbands. Those who’ve never been married also fared better.

While I’m not too shocked at the divorce aspect, I am surprised about the age thing. An older man and younger woman, totally understandable when women didn’t have careers and needed an established hubby to support them, now seems a little…dated. And I always thought that educated women would seek a similarly educated man, and that those intellectual-equal couples would fare better than mismatched ones.

What do you think? Does it make sense that a younger wife-older man pairing equals a life of bliss?
Photo courtesy of The 5th Ape.

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