Schlafly Defends Columnist's Warning About Marrying Career Women
by Mary Rettig
September 7, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The founder and president of Eagle Forum says Steve Forbes should not have apologized for an editorial that appeared in his magazine late last month. Forbes editor Michael Noer wrote the widely criticized piece entitled "Don't Marry Career Women," in which he describes the difficulties of being married to a profession-oriented female. Feminists blasted the Forbes article for its supposed anti-woman stance. In the editorial, Noer cited a number of "recent studies" that he says have found career women to be "more likely to get divorced, more likely to cheat and less likely to have children." And if these career-focused women do have children, he adds, statistically "they are more likely to be unhappy about it."
According to Noer, if "a host of studies" are to be believed, marrying a career woman is asking for trouble. This statement and others in the article drew strong criticism from feminists and others, many decrying the article as sexist. Steve Forbes apologized for the piece, stating that it was meant to be "part academic and part humorous," but instead it "profoundly offended hardworking career women everywhere."
However, Eagle Forum's Phyllis Schlafly feels Forbes has no reason to apologize since the facts and statistics Noer cited were sound. In fact, she suggests, an article like this should have been written 20 years ago, and this one still hits the right note today because, contrary to the feminist myth, a woman really cannot "have it all" -- at least, not all at the same time.
To Schlafly, this is a simple question of practicality. "You can't have it all at the same time. There are not that many hours in the day," she asserts. "Now, with our lengthened lifespan, a woman can have it all; I think I've had it all," she says, "but you don't have it at the same time. A baby is extremely demanding -- even more demanding than a husband."
But the issue Noer's article raises is not really about women who have careers, the pro-family spokeswoman points out. What the author is really highlighting in the Forbes article, she contends, is the problem of wives who set the wrong priorities.
"A lot of the newspapers ... have published articles about how some of the most highly educated women -- women who graduated from the elite colleges and then got graduate degrees like MBAs or JDs -- have put their career ahead of husband and family," Schlafly notes. "In many of these cases, in the woman's scale of values, the husband is ranking third," she says.
The real issue is not women having careers, Schlafly says, but women making their careers their highest priority, above family. When that type of situation takes place, she observes, it is not likely that a husband will stick around. So, feminist critiques notwithstanding, Eagle Forum's president adds, there's nothing offensive about setting good priorities.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
