http://www.forbes.com/careers/2006/08/21/careers-marriage-dating_cx_mn_0821women.html
Forbes advises men not to marry “career girls.” Wow. I kept hoping this would turn out to be a joke, but no. Even worse, it reads as though it were written by a Homeland Security department. (Given the Republican platform, I suppose it may well be.) Scarily, here’s their all-encompassing definition of “career girl”:
To be clear, we’re not talking about a high-school dropout minding a cash register. For our purposes, a “career girl” has a university-level (or higher) education, works more than 35 hours a week outside the home and makes more than $30,000 a year.
If a host of studies are to be believed, marrying these women is asking for trouble. If they quit their jobs and stay home with the kids, they will be unhappy ( Journal of Marriage and Family, 2003). They will be unhappy if they make more money than you do ( Social Forces, 2006). You will be unhappy if they make more money than you do ( Journal of Marriage and Family, 2001). You will be more likely to fall ill ( American Journal of Sociology). Even your house will be dirtier ( Institute for Social Research).
Subtext: If you marry a career girl, then the terrorists have won!
This is amazing and frustrating on so many levels: It sets the bar frustratingly low – men are essentially pointed at high school grads with part-time jobs and low income for marryin’ material. There is no mention of the tendency of the men who marry career women (or their mall-worker cousins) to philander, or be unhappy, or even help clean the house (and oh, did that one rile me!) No acknowledgment, either, that a more educated woman can make more educated choices – she may well realise that there’s more to life than waiting for your one-and-only man to come home to a clean house, with dinner ready and his slippers in your mouth. Unbelievable!