In the Blog
“Just, whatever you do, don’t marry a woman with a career.”
Forbes appears to be in quite a spot of trouble after a controversial article from Michael Noer about the apparently dim prospect of marrying “career” women. The article, originally posted August 22 but subsequently taken down and reposted with a counterpoint,, contained some choice tidbits seemingly designed to raise the ire of working women everywhere:
While everyone knows that marriage can be stressful, recent studies have found professional women are more likely to get divorced, more likely to cheat, less likely to have children, and, if they do have kids, they are more likely to be unhappy about it. A recent study in Social Forces, a research journal, found that women–even those with a “feminist” outlook–are happier when their husband is the primary breadwinner.
“Those with a ‘feminist’ outlook” shot back in droves. Boing Boing archived parts of the article after Forbes took it down. The blog Pandagon saved the accompanying sidebar that still has not resurfaced on the website. Another blog, Feministe, fired off a point-by-point riposte. Jennifer Saylor took the simpler route of merely changing all the gender pronouns to create Don’t Marry Career Men. And Salon managed to elicit responses from the likes of Gloria Steinem and Travelocity CEO Michelle Peluso. Ah, but Jack Shafer at Slate would like to remind you that the article isn’t all that offensive, chastising women ready to “break their nails pounding out angry e-mails to me” while at the same time debunking some of Noer’s points. Maybe if he dropped the attitude his point would come across clearer.
This isn’t the first time one of Noer’s articles has come under fire. (While other bloggers have noted that “The Economics of Prostitution” was taken down along with “Don’t Marry Career Women,” it appears to be back on the Forbes site.)
