I'll take a stab at this: The societal pressure placed on men to earn enough to be a provider or at least earn more than their partners causes men to assign a

I'll take a stab at this: The societal pressure placed on men to earn enough to be a provider or at least earn more than their partners causes men to assign a higher weight to ROI when evaluating pursuing higher education. Anecdata: I have no degree, my company will pay for me to get anything up to the PhD level - I have little interest in this because I don't see it increasing my earning potential vs investing the same amount of time in progressing my career or looking for a new job. EDIT: I have a second conjecture too now that I think of it - increased levels of education and career progression for women puts a sort of "floor" on whether getting an education is worth it all for some men since even after investing the effort they're at or below the income levels of their potential partners. I don't know enough about the effect income disparity has on partner selection to put much stock in this but maybe it's a thing?