Just a Little Misleading

A few days ago there was much rumbling in the blogosphere over a NY Times story that suggested that for the first time in recorded history, more women were "living without a spouse" than were living with a spouse. This was taken by some as a great hurrah for feminism, but as Special Report points out, it looks like the researchers went to great efforts to make sure the majority came down on the side of "living without a spouse":

Women Without Spouses

The New York Times is coming under fire for a story this week with the headline proclaiming "51 percent of women are now living without a spouse."

The story is based on 2005 census data. But critics point out that 51 percent of women includes more than 10 million girls between the ages of 15 and 19, and 2.5 million women whose husbands are working out of town, in the military, or in institutions.

It also includes nine million widows who obviously were married until their husbands died. That same census data indicates 94 percent of all U.S. women above the age of 50 will have married some time in their lives.

Now, unless you live so far up some "holler" in West Virginia that they have to pipe in sunshine, odds are you're not going to be married when you're 15...or 16...or 17...or 18...and probably 19. So why where these millions of young women included in the numbers? It sounds to me like somebody was trying to make some sort of statement and wasn't willing to wait for the numbers to come to him.