In the news: the M.B.A., J.D., M.D. or Ph.D. plays second fiddle to your S.E.X.

Even after the suffrage movement, it has taken decades for the media to depict women as three-dimensional beings with abilities that exceed gender roles. With the recent coverage of educated women or those in high-powered positions, has much really changed?

As a graduate student, the Forbes list of 100 most powerful women has always encouraged me, because I saw that gender did not have to hinder success. It publicizes women that do and have it all. The women highlighted were celebrated for their feats despite the societal constraints of sex, rather than because of it. Even in undergrad, I looked forward to seeing this comprehensive list of women that spanned the gamut from: effective, cold and calculating CEOs I loved to hate, to ladies that embraced maternal tactics in their careers—viewing their employees and businesses as family, and became successful because of it. Unfortunately, it seems Forbes stands alone in its balanced depiction of women.

The coverage of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, and Michelle Obama had more to do with fashion, emotion, disposition and femininity than character and achievement. That took a little wind from my sails, but what truly sank my battleship was this article in the Wall Street Journal. It basically discussed a study that shows a slight difference in the divorce-rates for women with graduate degrees and their male counterparts.

The article states, “Women with M.B.A.s are twice as likely to get divorced or separated as their male counterparts. The picture isn't much rosier for women with law or medical degrees.” However, when we get to the actual numbers the article shows:

According to Prof. Wilson's study, women with law or medical degrees
divorce less often than those with only bachelor's degrees, but are still more
likely to divorce or separate than their male counterparts (10% of women with
law degrees and 9% of women with medical degrees, compared with 7% of male
lawyers and 5.1% of male doctors).

When you get right down to it, there’s only a 3% difference between divorce rates for men and women in the legal profession and a 3.9% difference between divorce rates for those in the medical field. The article exaggerates the story the numbers tell to support a likely valid point: for some reason, women with high education and achievement levels do not fit the widely depicted gender-roles of American society. The credible argument this article could have made gets lost in the lop-sided coverage. It should have included research on those with graduate degrees compared to the rest of the population, news on marital status among less educated people, maybe even a realistic approach to identifying factors for divorce among professionals would have been nice.

If the media continues to depict educated women as one-dimensional and lonely, the misconception that women cannot have both successful homes and careers will flourish. Meanwhile, I’ll maintain my annual wait for that Forbes issue.