You've heard the statistic over and over: Single women over 40 have a better chance of being killed by a terrorist than getting married. What you may not know is that the source of that bit of wisdom is a 1986 Newsweek article.
Newsweek is now admitting that they got it wrong. First and foremost, the statistic about the terrorist was (a) not included in the study that they were reporting and (b) was factually incorrect at the time. Newsweek has conducted a follow-up study and --of the 14 women interviewed for the original story -- they have found 8 who did in fact get married.
How much angst did Newsweek cause when they decided to go for quippy rhetoric rather than factually accurate reporting? How many women were made to feel hopeless . . . like spinsters . . . like losers? I would bet some women may have rushed into bad marriages for fear that time was running out. Or that others gave up. And I know men who have certainly tried to use that "fact" to their advantage with women.
Oddly, in their mea culpa, Newsweek does not actually apologize. Not for their shoddy reporting or for the misery they undoubtedly caused. Personally, I think there is a generation of women who should forward their therapy bills to Newsweek's management.
And, for the record, today statisticians say that a single women over 40 has about a 40 percent chance of getting married.