As a woman with a master's degree, I can easily say that it in no way lowered my self-esteem. Am I better educated than most of the men in the dating market? Yes. That doesn't make me feel bad about myself. I think the researcher was assuming that how men feel about women has anything at all to do with our self-esteem. High self-esteem doesn't come from outside validation. It's completely internal. Was the researcher a man? I feel like only a man could write that women becoming more educated could ever be a disadvantage.