High-tech women blow marriage for job

Life on the shelf for single bright emailers

Women who graduate with technology degrees are least likely to marry and have children than those qualified in other subjects.

A study looking at women entering traditionally male-dominated science, engineering and technology occupations, has found that female technology graduates are more likely to be single than other graduates, and more than twice as likely as non-graduates to have never married.

The Women's Scientific Lives: a life course perspective study conducted by the Institute of Education at the University of London reveals that 40 percent of female technology graduates questioned aged between 25 and 44 are unmarried. Among the highly qualified, those with health-related degrees are the most likely to have married.

Forty percent of women with technology degrees are also most likely to marry or cohabit with similarly-qualified men. One fifth of female technologists is found to marry partners with the same occupation.

Women working in technology are also least likely to have children. By the age of 49, 37 percent of female technologists questioned were childless, with half of them not becoming mothers until 35.

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