Vol. 4, No. 4: March 1, 2000

The outrage from women’s groups over "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?" revealed less about the Fox TV show than about the critics, some of whom went so far as to suggest it signaled the end of Western civilization.

In a rare display of honesty, 51 able-minded individuals made public their priorities in choosing a mate. It is certainly more palatable than watching those who air their most intimate secrets before a live audience on TV talk shows. And the February 15 show certainly wasn’t taken seriously by any of the players.

Producers required everyone to sign a document stating that the marriage could be annulled, uncontested, at any time for any reason. In other words, they wanted two people to dress up and do something wacky until the credits rolled—it wasn’t about marriage, it was about TV ratings. Even the bride said she had done it for the proverbial 15 minutes of fame, not to mention the $100,000 in prizes.

To assign moral import to the show requires validation of one of the most distressing gender myths—intimately tied to that of the wage gap and glass ceiling—that women need to marry a man with deep pockets in order to have any money themselves. This simply isn’t true.

Since the 1970s, the average never-married woman has made a slightly higher salary than her male counterpart with equal qualifications. Furthermore, women are now significantly represented in the hi-tech industry, where the traditional means of measuring income is becoming obsolete and stock options in the right IPO can create instant millionaires.

In this competitive arena—which daily becomes more and more important to the U.S. economy—it is vital that companies recruit the best talent, regardless of race, gender, or even experience. The companies that are most successful depend increasingly on traditionally female strengths, such as partnering and superlative customer service.

Not only are women executives being lured away from major companies to head start-ups or take over already maturing technology companies, but they are also getting significant venture capital to start their own companies. According to the National Foundation for Women Business Owners (NFWBO), as of 1999, there were 9.1 million women-owned businesses in the U.S., which account for almost 40 percent of all firms. NFWBO also reports that these businesses are as financially sound and creditworthy as the typical U.S. firm, and more likely to stay in business.

Women are starting businesses at twice the rate of men, making very real the possibility that women-owned firms will soon outnumber those owned by men. The support structure for these female entrepreneurs is immense, and growing larger. A tremendous number of private groups have been created that are specifically focused on increasing the resources available to women: Entrepreneur Network for Women, WomanOwned Workplaces Network, Partnership of Women Entrepreneurs, and many others.

This demonstrates the business community’s commitment to "leveling the playing field" in their own way. An Ernst & Young survey found that less than a third of the women polled thought that government-led initiatives were worth considering in the effort to promote women’s continued economic success.

As women come to play a more central role in running corporate America, it is distressing that many women’s groups give little more than lip service to those they claim to represent. Television shows like "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?" shouldn’t be afforded more predictive value than the very real advances that women have made over the last couple of decades.

–Joanna Elach
Public Policy Fellow