Consensual conjugal unions among the higher educated women: understanding the heterogeneity of the Brazilian context

Consensual unions have increased greatly in Brazil over the last few decades. Initially, restricted to less-educated groups, they have now been observed in all educational groups, leading some to suggest a diffusion of the Second Demographic Transition (SDT) in the country. In this paper, we examine the characteristics of women choosing consensual unions in Brazil between 1980 and 2010, with a focus on differentials by education. The results show that higher educated women, when compared to the least educated group, prefer marriage over consensual union in both 1980 and 2010. In addition, we show a growing difference between educational groups over time for choosing informal unions, as the probabilities for higher educated women to choose this union type grew less than for the lower educated. For the women with high levels of education in 2010, the likelihood of being in a consensual union is greater among those from lower social classes, and among blacks, browns, and Catholics. These results suggest the replication of intergenerational behaviour as the most likely explanation for the increase in consensual unions among the most educated.