dancerjodi (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dancerjodi) wrote2006-08-23 01:37 pm
dancerjodi) wrote2006-08-23 01:37 pm
Grrrr
From Forbes (thanks Aidenraine!), why you shouldn't marry a career woman (a slide show):
http://www.forbes.com/2006/07/25/cx_mn_singles06_destined_misery_slide.html?boxes=popslide&boxes=custom
I hate how people rely so much on statistics. I'm a data analyst, and *I* know that the majority <> all people. I also know that different things work for different people, and some men may like their messier house, or may not want to have kids, or whatever other situation contradicts what Forbes is trying to say.
I'm not a Forbes reader, but I always thought them to be a more professional type of magazine (I'd expect some conservatism and disregard for gay relationships, but I was still kind of shocked to see this on their site). I know they site various studies in this slideshow and all, but this is really, really a case of 'massaging the numbers' to support your own ideals. It also kind of downplays the joy that can come from a marriage that goes far beyond keeping house and breeding.
Grrr!
http://www.forbes.com/2006/07/25/cx_mn_singles06_destined_misery_slide.html?boxes=popslide&boxes=custom
I hate how people rely so much on statistics. I'm a data analyst, and *I* know that the majority <> all people. I also know that different things work for different people, and some men may like their messier house, or may not want to have kids, or whatever other situation contradicts what Forbes is trying to say.
I'm not a Forbes reader, but I always thought them to be a more professional type of magazine (I'd expect some conservatism and disregard for gay relationships, but I was still kind of shocked to see this on their site). I know they site various studies in this slideshow and all, but this is really, really a case of 'massaging the numbers' to support your own ideals. It also kind of downplays the joy that can come from a marriage that goes far beyond keeping house and breeding.
Grrr!
no subject
Way Too One Sided
It cites that more married women who work don't have children, but it doesn't say why. I wonder how many women who can't have children and work full time decided to do so after discovering fertility problems. I also wonder how many couples polled have no children because the husband didn't want them or because the fertility issues were on his side of things.
no subject
I also found it interesting that if you're in a happy marriage, working 40 hours a week makes everyone happier, while if you're in an unhappy marriage it makes everything more unhappy. Since they titled that slide something about being unhappy, does that imply that they think an unhappy marriage is more likely than a happy one? Or are they advocating that everyone run out and get married despite it making you miserable.
I'm curious about what they left out. How many marriages in their study are younger people, versus older? Are some of the statistics impacted by the time in life that people are at?
And the "You'll get sick more often" one made me crack up. "She won't have time to monitor your health!!! Oh NOES! You'll have to be an adult all on your own! The horror!"
So, yeah on the Grrr. But snicker at it for the subtext...
no subject
so, ms graduate degree... no cheating at the office! :-p
I shake my fist ineffectually at the lot of them
There are FAR too many possible, plausible factors underlying these conclusions for them to be meaningful. Given that this slide show was pieced together from multiple sources, it just makes me wonder exactly how many dimensions of marital life each of these sets of statisticians measured in coming up with their conclusions.
For instance, if a woman works more than 40 hours per week and does 1.9 hours less of housework herself, is she more likely to hire a cleaning service? All that overtime pay has to go somewhere.
Or if they're going to say that these women are 1.75 %/times (the article didn't show a label on the 1.75) more likely to cheat on their husbands, I firstly want to know how they sampled randomly for their respondents, and secondly what else they asked in this regard. Are the husbands impotent? Do they have some sort of arrangement (which is getting more common, or at least more acceptable, these days) whereby they can have multiple partners without it causing significant marital turmoil? In terms of sampling, did they puts ads to call about the survey in places where women who were likely to be cheating would be (for instance, bar/club restrooms or restaurants in/near major commercial districts)? You don't just do a random phone survey and say, "Hi. We're calling on behalf of the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. Have you ever cheated on your husband?"
And what's with the 1950's expectations of women coming home, putting on an apron (with their heels and pearls, of course), making their husbands chicken soup and dusting? Whatever happened to those concepts of equality where maybe, just maybe, a division of tasks would not be solely based on gender but on the availability and skills of those performing them?
Whichever Forbes editor(s) agreed to let this into their magazine should be fired, sued and bitch-slapped for publishing this kind of crap.
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If I want to eat XYZ food, I freaking cook it.
I do think that some depth on the ideas that when a woman makes more than a man people are less happy is worthwhile, if only because it might point it some of our gender differences and how society still has expectations that a man provides in a material sense while a woman provides in a nurturing sense. But it also means that we need to adjust those -- I might feel less manly if my SO brings in more cash than me, but then that is my issue to figure out. Not a reason to shun the situation.
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pithy things like, "If you do marry, you are more likely to get divorced." well duh. marriage IS the leading cause of divorce, you know. :P
and i stopped clicking at, "She is more likely to cheat on you." What. THE HELL. Ever. that pissed me off. i just cant' be pissed off right now, so i stopped reading.
so all you mens out there, keep yer wifey locked up safe at home all alone with the kiddies so she won't meet anyone, cheat on you, and run off! because you're just THAT insecure to think the reason she DID do all those things, is because of her career, and nothing whatever to do with you and the fact that you wanted a slave-mommy rather than a life-partner.
GRRRR.
sorry. i didn't mean to go off. it sort of ... came out. *g* my apologies.
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besides, i know a really cool stay-at-home dad with a side-business whose wife is the major breadwinner. i think they'd have a LOT of issues with this article.
no subject