pp. 123-142

Studies on intergenerational mobility have shown that social stratifications are rather rigid from certain aspects. Marriage is a worthy indicator when trying to judge the evolution of 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 qualifications than to his/her social origin. To establish this fact the authors put forward new measures aiming to solve the problems of coherence produced by the usual indicators of homogamy or social mobility. In fact this result is not due to changes in structure but reflects alterations in homogamic behaviour. This confirms the large number of analyses which for a wide range of fields points out that in advanced industrial society cultural stratifications override socio-professional stratifications.