Other explanations for the black-white marriage gap focus on additional constraints on the availability of partners for black women. For example, women tend to marry partners who have accumulated at least as much schooling as they have.27 Among both blacks and whites in the United States today, young women tend to be more educated than young men.28 This constrains the pools of desirable partners for marriage. But the education gap between men and women is larger for blacks, making this constraint particularly important for black women. Moreover, rates of intermarriage among blacks differ substantially by gender.29 Black men are more than twice as likely as black women to marry someone of a different race.30 This, too, constrains the pool of potential partners for black women.31
