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Comment by Xeoncross | Hacker News Reader

> There are still other people who don’t marry because they lack a decent opportunity. Girls who choose nursing as a career, for example, cut their marriage prospects at least fifty per cent. It is much the same for librarians and social workers. In fact a girl can reduce her chances of marriage merely by going to a girls’ college.

you have been warned /s

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There’s nothing controversial about it. Usually people get to know other people at university or at work. To meet someone outside of your everyday environment requires extra effort. I know it from my own experience as well (trying to find a girlfriend while studying CS).

Well, I did meet my wife in college. If she had gone to a girls’ college (which I assume means girls-only, do they even still have those?) then I wouldn’t have met her. Frankly, that probably would not have reduced her chances of marriage, but I think it would have reduced mine ;-)

Wellesley College is a well known women's only college. Hillary Clinton went there, and it's still women only today (although they have partnerships with nearby schools like Harvard and MIT and Boston College for the women to take classes there if they want (and experience classes with mixed genders)).

They also have planned social activities with those nearby mixed gender colleges.

(My friend went there and told me all of this, and I assume it's still the case even though it's been 25 years :) ).

They have planned mixers to remediate a known lack. Obviously the occasional gathering isn't going to replicate the experience of a coed college where you're interacting closely with people every day.

It's just as true for the opposite sex. Just that there aren't really any men-only colleges.

Back in the day, there certainly were plenty of men-only colleges. Or close enough.

The US Navy Academy first admitted a woman in 1976.

> How Is Your Job Affecting Your Prospects? People tend to marry mates who live conveniently near and who have similar interests. (About a fifth of all married couples meet each other at work.) A school teacher, for example, is much more likely to know school teachers of the opposite sex than to know physicians of the opposite sex. Yet many occupations are such that far more of one sex enter them than is true of the other. For example, there are normally nearly five women teachers to one man teacher; seven or eight feminine librarians to one male librarian; some twenty-five or thirty women in nursing to each man in somewhat similar work. Is it any wonder that the rate of marriage among school teachers, librarians and among nurses is much lower than average? Girls who choose[31] nursing for a career cut their marriage prospects by at least 50 percent.

Sounds like engineering

You don't think this is true?

Judging by how you feel it necessary to even ask such a ridiculous question, I strongly doubt you would accept any answer but that which supports your anachronistic views.

A man goes to the office every working day. He works long hours as he is trying to prove himself and really grow his career. Even after work, he's more likely to just quietly hit the gym or read in the evenings.

He's obviously hurt his chances at marriage. He's not investing in any women. He's not socializing or dating, he's not learning to be a good partner.

Now go back and pretend I said "woman" instead of "man".

Data about marriage among people who choose various lifepaths is not a viewpoint.

There is an increasingly prevalent view among the "freshman profundity" set that if you've arrived at any view that is counter to theirs, then it's because you oppose their political or moral value system. However, a good understanding of the world rarely yield beliefs that cohere with the kind of convenient, value-oriented rhetorical slogans that people get self-righteous over online.

I'm totally open to being wrong. But take the girls' college thing for instance. Many, many people I know met their spouses through college. There simply aren't as many chances to socialize and meet people after you graduate. I think it stands to reason that if you are a straight woman, you are less likely to find a spouse if you go to a college with only women.

women's colleges routinely mixed socially, had dances etc. with men's colleges. To the point that alot of girls went to college to meet eligible men of upper echelons.

I don't think GP's point was that women's colleges have mixers

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