EVOLUTION OF HOMOGAMY IN FRANCE - A METHO D TO COMPARE DIAGONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SEVERAL TABLES

Studies on intergenerational mobility have shown that social stratific ations are rather rigid from certain aspects. Marriage is a worthy ind icator when trying to judge the evolution oi these layers. A secondary analysis of the data collected for the ''Employment'' survey, carried out in 1989 by the INSEE, brings to light the fact that the choice of spouse is more often related to the level of the person's qualificati ons than to his/her social origin. To establish this fact the authors pur Forward new measures aiming to solve the problems of coherence pro duced by the usual indicators of homogamy or social mobility. In fact this result is not due to changes in structure but reflects alteration s in homogamic behaviour. This confirms the large number of analyses w hich for a wide range of fields points out that in advanced industrial society cultural stratifications override socio-professional stratifi cations.