The last place I would look for relationship advice and tips is Forbes magazine known for its business and financial acumen. Apparently, a recent editorial in that magazine is really getting it noticed and not in a positive light. As a student of journalism, I recognize the difference between an editorial and a column as I write this. Editorials are fact-based commentaries, while a column is just an opinion commentary.
So when the editor Forbes magazine says his editorial was meant to be partially humorous, I take his defense as a reaction to the enormous backlash caused by his editorial. What was the editorial? It was titled: Don’t Marry a Career Woman. He takes the time in the editorial to outline the dangers and pitfalls that men will face if they do marry a career woman. His theories are based on studies that claim among other things that career women are more likely to:
- Want fewer children
- Cheat on their spouses
- More likely to divorce their spouses
The Sound and the Fury
The article is more than just insulting. Among the comments he writes, he included this little gem: if they do have kids, they’re more likely to be unhappy about it…the more successful she is, the more likely she is to grow dissatisfied with you.
Perhaps men might find this statement humorous, but as a wife and a mother – how on earth are you to interpret being unhappy about having your children or the implication that if you work – you will be unhappy if you have kids? I know exactly how I feel about it.
I don’t think it’s humorous. If Forbes was attempting humor – they failed miserably. Apparently visitors to their web site are no more amused by the editorial than I am.
There was even a response fired off by an anthropologist named Helen Fisher from Rutgers University on Good Morning America. She offered an astonished attitude and was immensely surprised that anyone could think that, write it or publish it. She also denied any evidence in her research and studies that indicate career women were more likely to divorce – unless they are not in a good marriage to begin with.
Fisher cited the fact that more educated women are going to have more options and alternatives than remaining in a miserable relationship. Just because they have the ability to abandon a bad marriage, does not mean they are going to walk out on their good marriages.
A marketing executive and mother from New York city named Rusty Robertson was also quoted on Good Morning America and she said: At the end of the day, this man has no faith in relationships, he has no faith in marriage and I certainly wouldn’t want to be married to him.
Forbes Responded
The editorial was posted on Wednesday and the backlash spread rapidly throughout the Internet. By Thursday, the editorial was pulled down and then reposted later next to another column written by a woman writer called: Don’t Marry a Lazy Man. The editor in chief of Forbes magazine issued an apology for offending working women everywhere with a piece that he claimed was meant to be part humorous and part academic.
Yes, Forbes clearly hit a nerve. I’m still offended though – because they reposted their editorial next to a column and think that’s enough – still — at least they tried. Check out the articles for yourself and don’t be surprised if you’re annoyed.
While I may not be a ‘career woman’ as they define it – I love my daughter. I want to have more and just because I have more options – doesn’t mean I’m going to ditch my marriage at the first sign of trouble – so pffft to you Forbes – the apology and the commentary is hardly enough. Think longer and harder next time before you insult the rest of us wives and mothers whether we have careers or not.
Were you aware of these articles before reading this?
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