'Don't Marry a Woman With a Career'

Aug. 25, 2006 — -- Forbes magazine may not be known for its relationship tips, but the business publication is getting a lot of attention right now for an article about finding a wife.

Editor Michael Noer has written an editorial titled "Don't Marry a Career Woman" in which he outlines the pitfalls he says men will face if they defy that advice.

He bases his theory on a batch of recent studies that claim career women are more likely to cheat on their husbands and get divorced. And they'll also want fewer children.

"If they do have kids, they're more likely to be unhappy about it. … The more successful she is, the more likely she is to grow dissatisfied with you," he writes.

As soon as Forbes.com posted the article Wednesday, reactions spread across the Web like wildfire.

Sarah Cipperly, a lawyer in Atlanta, immediately e-mailed her girlfriends urging them to boycott the magazine, saying the attitude expressed does not fit her experience.

"It's certainly not reflective of the working women I know, the working woman who raised me, or the ones I come across in the business world every day," Cipperly said.

Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University, told "Good Morning America" she was "astonished" by the article.

"I'm surprised that the man thinks it. I'm astonished that he wrote it. And I'm astonished that anyone published it, particularly Forbes," she said.

And Fisher denied there is any evidence that career women are more likely to divorce their husbands -- as long as they are in good marriages.

"Better educated women are going to [have] more alternatives, and so they're going to be more likely to walk out of a bad marriage," Fisher said. "They're not going to be any more likely to run out on a good marriage."

Rusty Robertson, a New York City marketing executive and mother, said from what she saw in the article, the problem might be with Noer, not working women.

"At the end of the day, this man has no faith in relationships, he has no faith in marriage, and I certainly wouldn't want to be married to him," Robertson said on "GMA."