Narrator: This is Science Today. The stereotypical, old-fashioned view of marriage is that a man wants a woman who can provide children and a woman wants a man who can provide enough money for the family. But Monique Borgerhoff-Mulder, an anthropology professor at the University of California, Davis says recent studies indicate that men and women are choosing mates who share similar values.

Borgerhoff-Mulder: We have this view of marriage as a division of labor. So when you find that men and women like the same kinds of characteristics in that partner as they view they have in themselves as well, it kind of puzzles this whole notion of the division of labor, but actually if you think about the way that marriage is going in this culture, we think of marriage more as a relationship of companionship rather than necessary division of labor. And so in some respects, it makes sense.

Narrator: Borgerhoff-Mulder adds that the institution of marriage adapts to the changing economic roles and opportunities of men and women. For Science Today, I’m Larissa Branin.