Do career women make lousy lifetime companions? Of course, argues a writer in Forbes in a piece stirring up considerable outrage. An e-mail campaign seeking a boycott of Forbes is making the rounds as we speak; this BoingBoing post rounds up the controversy and Forbes’ flip-flop handling of the article.
Michael Noer’s piece begins with this “word of advice” for guys: “Marry pretty women or ugly ones. Short ones or tall ones. Blondes or brunettes. Just, whatever you do, don’t marry a woman with a career.”
Noer notes, of course, that career-minded men are generally more attracted to educated and ambitious mates. But that way lies madness, he says. For one thing, Noer says women in the workforce — at one point, he calls them “career girls” — are more likely to cheat on you. He also cites studies that he says show that if you marry, say, a lawyer, you’re stepping down a path that leads to a dirty home, sickness, divorce and maybe an early alcoholic death.
(Full disclosure: I married a lawyer 11 years ago. So far, so good …)
And Noer cites a study that claims women — “even those with a ‘feminist’ outlook” — are happier when hubby makes the money.
A female — and married — Forbes colleague has posted a response. She’s got some advice for guys, too: Go to the gym.
— Greg Mitchell
August 31, 2006 at 4:37 pm |
[...] Legal Pad got a pretty decent readership spike with the item we posted late last week about the Forbes article suggesting that “career girls” — such as lawyers of a certain gender — make lousy mates. If hiking our hits is as easy as pointing out the crap women have to deal with in the legal profession, our future is secure: [...]