update adds link to earlier article

Forbes.com on Wednesday yanked an article it published on Aug. 21 containing reasons for men not to marry “career women” and reposted the story with a “rebuttal” after readers and bloggers from Gawker.com and Boing Boing to the Huffingtonpost.com freaked.

The article, by Forbes’s executive news editor Michael Noer, who also wrote an earlier treatise on the economics of getting married versus hiring a prostitute, contained references to a number of studies on ”career women” and how they make for a rocky marriage.

Choice nuggets below:

“Guys: A word of advice. Marry pretty women or ugly ones. Short ones or tall ones. Blondes or brunettes. Just, whatever you do, don’t marry a woman with a career.”

“A recent study in Social Forces, a research journal, found that women–even those with a ‘feminist’ outlook–are happier when their husband is the primary breadwinner. Not a happy conclusion, especially given that many men, particularly successful men, are attracted to women with similar goals and aspirations. And why not? After all, your typical career girl is well-educated, ambitious, informed and engaged. All seemingly good things, right? Sureat least until you get married. Then, to put it bluntly, the more successful she is the more likely she is to grow dissatisfied with you. Sound familiar?”

In case you were wondering how one defines so-called ”career girls”, he helps out with a glossary definition:

“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.”

By Wednesday evening Aug. 23, a Forbes spokeswoman notified us that the article is back up, this time with a “rebuttal” entitled “Don’t Marry a Lazy Man” from Elizabeth Corcoran in the magazine’s Silicon Valley bureau running alongside Noer’s original story. Corcoran’s piece notes that “men should stand up to their responsibilities too.”

We just miss the sidebar list of “Nine Reasons To Steer Clear Of Career Women” which we couldn’t find after Forbes.com reposted the article. (update: We found the link to the sidebar but the pictures were gone.)   The picture of the cheese doodles spilled on the couch to illustrate that marrying a career woman could lead to dirtier houses was priceless. 

In a similar vein last February 14, Forbes.com ran a valentine by Noer, entitled “The Economics of Prostitution,” on a study debating the economics underpinning hiring a prostitute versus getting married.

Noer did not return the voicemail message we left.

Thanks to this Web site for keeping the article alive during the dark hours.