There was a time, not that long ago, when women Were considered smart if they played dumb to get a man, and women who went to college were more interested in getting a "Mrs.degree" than a bachelor's. Even today, it's not unusual for a woman to get whispered and unrequested counsel from her grandmother that an advanced degree could hurt her in the marriage market.

"There were so many misperceptions out there about education and marriage that I decided to sort out the facts," said economist Betsey Stevenson, an assistant professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. So along with Wharton colleague Adam Isen, Stevenson calculated national marriage data from 1950 to 2008 and found that the marriage penalty women once paid for being well educated has largely disappeared.

"In other words, the difference in marriage rates between those with college degrees and those without is very small," said Stephanie Coontz, a family historian at Evergreen State College. The new analysis also found that while high-school dropouts(辍学学生) had the highest marriage rates in the 1950s, today college-educated women are much more likely to marry than those who don't finish high school.

Of course, expectations have changed dramatically in the last half century. "In the 1950s, a lot of women thought they needed to marry right away," Coontz said. "Real wages were rising so quickly that men in their 20s could afford to marry early. But they didn't want a woman who was their equal. Men needed and wanted someone who knew less." In fact, she said, research published in 1946 documented that 40 percent of college women admitted to playing dumb on dates. "These days, few women feel the need to play down their intelligence or achievements," Coontz said.

The new research has more good news for college grads. Stevenson said the data indicate that modern college-educated women are more likely to be married before age 40, are less likely to divorce, and are more likely to describe their marriages as "happy". The marriages of well-educated women tend to be more stable because the brides are usually older as well as wiser, Stevenson said.

Not long ago, it was believed that women went to college in order to ______.

A．find a husband

B．get smart in the marriage market

C．learn to be a good wife

D．marry someone with a bachelor's degree