A new study shows that today’s younger husbands are the first generation that are not ‘threatened’ by wives with an equal or better education.

According to a report by The Telegraph, the University of Wisconsin study shows that there has been a major shift in the traditional “breadwinner-homemaker” model of marriage.

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The research shows that in previous generations, marriages where the husband was better qualified – and more likely to the breadwinner – were more likely to last.

That trend has now reversed, with couples who are evenly educated more likely to stay together than relationships where the husband is higher educated.

Marriages that took place between the 1950s and the 1980s where the wife had higher levels of education, were a third more likely to end in divorce.

For couples married after the early 1990s, that trend has gone into reverse.

Twenty-first century wives are also 40 per cent more likely to divorce their husbands who were more educated than them.

“Overall, our results speak against fears that women’s growing educational advantage has had more negative effects on marital stability,” said lead researcher Professor Christine Schwartz.