Smart Girls Marry Money: How Women Have Been Duped Into the Romantic Dream--And How They're Paying For It [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Ford (Author), Daniela Drake (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 5, 2009

Why does society applaud a girl who falls for a guy’s “big blue eyes” yet denounces one who chooses a man with a “big green bankroll”? After all, isn’t earning power more a reflection of a man’s values and character? Smart Girls Marry Money challenges the ideals and assumptions women have blindly accepted about love and marriage—and shows how they’ve done so at their own economic peril. In this brazen manifesto, authors Elizabeth Ford and Daniela Drake use cold hard facts, real science, and true stories to present a compelling case for why mercenary marriages make the most sense for future happiness.

Smart Girls taps into a growing, collective suspicion that the post-feminist world isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Female “empowerment” has women working hard to look sexier than ever, while carrying more than their fair share financially. Yet sadly, statistics prove that: not only do women continue to earn far less than their male counterparts, they also suffer far more economically when marriages fail. Ford and Drake think it’s high time that women get their heads out of the clouds and start caring about their own security—the kind that can be measured in dollars and common sense. With an irreverent, straight-talk tone, the authors serve up a sound case and intriguing strategy for how women can truly “have it all.” Sure to spark conversation and controversy, Smart Girls Marry Money will ultimately empower women with a new way to take control of both their economic and romantic lives.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Jean Icaza, Textbook Manager/Buyer, University of Connecticut
"Wow.  This book made me angry, then made me laugh, and certainly gave me pause for thought.  At times, I could not believe what I was reading and then upon reflection, I thought....Elizabeth and Daniela may be onto something here.  I could see this as a great book club choice....and can well imagine the debate that would ensue!  Great read.”

About the Author

Elizabeth Ford is an Emmy-award-winning news producer, who currently produces the daytime hit The Doctors.

Daniela Drake, M.D. attended Wellesley College and received an MBA from Stanford University. A former McKinsey consultant, she is now a full-time primary care physician.

Both women have married (for love) and have reaped the consequences. They live in Los Angeles, CA.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Running Press (May 5, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762435178
• ISBN-13: 978-0762435173
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.9 x 7.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,027,655 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 31 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Setting the clock back 100 years December 6, 2009

By viv777

Format:Hardcover

Well, the core advice they give is poorly reasoned and has potentially awful consequences if followed, but the authors did include a couple of home truths and the writing was pretty entertaining - so two stars. I read it in the bookstore, lying the front cover flat on my knee so that people wouldn't see the title.

Agreed with the part about how romantic love isn't enough to sustain a lasting relationship. Agreed that you must take into account a person's financial security to some extent before making a decision to commit to them. And that goes, by the way, for men as well as women. Agreed that women still have it tougher in the workplace than men do.

But I'm a little confused about the leap from those truths to the conclusion that a woman's best route to success is marrying rich.

The authors employ some really shoddy reasoning to make their point. So, it's great if you marry a rich guy and he divorces you and you get millions in alimony. But then they include a whopper of a sentence that made me giggle out loud, about how the female ex-CEO of Hewlett Packard got fired after a few years on the job and this was proof that the business world was still a boys' club (because male CEOs never get fired) and then: Carly Fiorina "struggled to piece her life back together, after receiving a $21 million severance package."

Huh? So a multi-million dollar "severance package" from a divorce spells success, but the same severance package from Hewlett Packard does not? In what world is the failure of a marriage more easily recovered from than the loss of a job, given equal financial gains from each?

I suppose if you see your marriage as nothing more than a ticket to Park Avenue, then this makes sense.

And while they emphasize, underline, italicize the continuing existence of the glass ceiling, they do admit that women can attain mid-level positions with comfortable salaries without needing to bust that ceiling. So, a woman can make a comfortable living these days, although she's not as likely to make partner as her male coworkers are. I dunno - if you really live your life for Prada and mansions, then I guess it still makes sense to latch onto a rich husband. But life isn't the filthy rich vs. broke dichotomy that the authors present - there's plenty of middle ground that women can access by themselves, and personally speaking I'd rather bump along on a salary I'm responsible for earning than trust my financial well-being to the good graces and continued financial success of another person.

Also, what about pre-nups? I'd like to see what the authors say about those.

The quit-your-career-and-marry-rich thing would lead to some pretty ugly consequences if a significant number of women did it. The authors actually summarize the history of feminism without denouncing it, all the way from the first struggles for the vote through the decade-by-decade gains in the workplace up until the present day. It should be clear from their summary that women today are closer to equal than ever before because of a large number of women over the past several generations who did NOT marry rich and retire to tennis and shopping instead of carving out careers and agitating for their rights. If a lot of women suddenly dropped their careers to focus on marriage, you can bet that we'd see diminishing opportunities for women overall, and then less political representation as women lost financial power. That may be water under the bridge for women who manage to find kind rich men willing to support them for the rest of their lives and who don't actually aspire to more than that, but it's not particularly wonderful for the majority of women. And if women ignore the bad advice and keep on with their careers, then it's probable that the glass ceiling will grow less and less restrictive over time - as has been happening up to the present day.

This book really caters to the jaded part of women - after experiencing enough misogyny and romantic woes, it's tempting to think "Hell with love, men are bastards, I'll marry rich and get what I can out of it!" The authors also do a good job of convincing the reader that pretty much anyone can get a rich, wonderful man to take care of them. But though the message is nice and pat, I know that I couldn't be happy practicing it, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

That's not even saying anything about how unfair it is to entice a man into marriage by pretending that you truly care about him when you're only there for his money. There's nothing praiseworthy about "succeeding" in doing that, and the "success" stories in the book were truly cringe-worthy when I took into account that the other person in the story was a real live human being.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Wow! November 22, 2011

By J. Whalen

Format:Hardcover

I was feeling pretty discouraged looking around at the state of society recently, then I stumbled upon this book. Now I'm absolutely certain we're doomed.

27 of 38 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious and Extremely Well Written March 14, 2010

By Shaun Snapp

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am a man and can find no fault with the book.

I work in business with a lot of married men. I am frequently shocked by how sex crazed married men are. We are choosing women who are young and pretty, and when they age on us if we can, we trade them in on a younger model. So I saw nothing wrong with how the book was presented and men really have absolutely no leg to stand on when it comes to being shocked. I know a high number of successful but unattractive men who actually think that young woman they date are attracted to "them." Isn't amazing how men "fall in love" with women that have fit bodies? I have no idea why almost any man, no matter how physically repulsive thinks they deserve a super model. Secondly, most money "earned" by successful men is not much earned as stolen (yes I am talking to you super attorney and physician who is on big pharma's payroll and prescribes for cash.)

Go on girls, control us as you see fit and as Johnny Depp said in Pirates of the Caribbean "Take all you can, and give nothing back."