Newsweek admits feminists were right

Sort of. Lynn over at Broadsheet has a great post (and follow-up) on Newsweek’s “re-evaluation” of its 1986 story about marriage, Too Late for Prince Charming? (retch), which claimed that college-educated women who are still single at age 35 have only a 5 percent chance of ever getting married. Some researchers now put the odds at 40 percent.
Wonder if the editors at Newsweek sent Susan Faludi a note that said, “Whoops! Sorry! Our bad.” Faludi (who isn’t mentioned in the “update”) debunked the original article in her 1991 book Backlash, which not only illustrated why a feminist movement was still necessary, but also proved that a feminist book could crack the bestseller list. Faludi wrote, “If anyone faced a shortage of potential spouses, it was men in the prime marrying years.” Today Newsweek admits that, even in 1986– before fertility treatments and “Sex and the City” made it OK to be over 35 and single– a 40-year-old woman really had a 23 percent chance of marrying. I’m no statistician, but that’s a bit higher than 5 percent.
I wonder if, 20 years from now, we can expect the New York Times to admit they had it all wrong about professional women “opting out.” I’m not holding my breath.