Forbes Forgets Women Work, Read Magazines, Spend Money

I'm a woman. I graduated from a four-year university. I work more than 35 hours per week in an office. I expect to make over $30,000 this year. So Forbes's Michael Noer has decided his readers (apparently, all male) shouldn't marry me.

Why? According to Noer, I'm less likely to be faithful, have children, and clean the house; my husband is more likely to get sick. We'll probably both be less happy than if he had married a high school dropout who earns less money than her husband and spends most of her time in the home.

Thanks, Forbes. And I'm glad that as the "Home Page for the World's Business Leaders," you have chosen to ignore and alienate twenty of the Fortune 1000 CEOs, 35 percent of all MBA candidates, and over 6.5 million business owners--all of whom are women. You'd think a struggling magazine recently forced to sell 40 percent of its shares to Bono would recognize the error in offending the female public, which makes up 35 percent of its online audience.

Forbes.com may have increased its site traffic by posting a controversial article, now coupled with a weak rebuttal from a female staffer in the wake of blog-fueled outrage. But the sting of "Don't Marry Career Women" won't fade for enterprising, successful, hard-working businesswomen who already struggle to balance work with their personal lives. We don't need chauvinistic articles that relegate us to male conveniences and fail to address us as readers--and we'll realize we don't need Forbes. One day or even one week of amped-up page views for Forbes.com can't offset the inevitable backlash from its current female audience. This self-proclaimed capitalist tool may have just kissed away its skirt-wearing target market.

Comments

[panasianbiz.com]

I completely agree with you that Forbes dropped the ball on this one! What an example of fatal shortsightedness! Women are much more powerful economically and politically than they ever have been before!