OMG: Unemployed Men Undesirable To Women

And this is news? Just kidding. It's not unusual for women looking for a relationship to keep a checklist (hopefully, just mental) of qualities they absolutely require in a man. But a recent survey by the dating service "It's Just Lunch" found that there's one box in particular that straight women want checked: they want the men they date to have jobs.

Of the 925 single women surveyed, 75 percent said they'd have a problem with dating someone without a job. Only 4 percent of respondents asked whether they would go out with an unemployed man answered "of course."

It would be easy to assume that we have old-fashioned beliefs about gender roles and who should be the breadwinner. But, the women interviewed for the press release didn't mention anything about that. Instead, they said they were concerned that they might end up having to support an unemployed man. They also said they didn't want their own activities to be limited by someone else's job status and potential financial limitations.

Jezebel went a step further, arguing that the survey numbers could be misleading. 42 percent of the women of counted in that 75 percent camp saying no to unemployed men actually said they might go out on a date with a guy who doesn't have a job: they just probably wouldn't want to date him long-term unless he had some have some sort of plan to secure one eventually. Sounds reasonable enough, argued Cassie Murdoch of Jezebel:

“I'm not sure it's so much about the traditional belief that men should be the financial providers so much as it is about believing that a man who doesn't have job and doesn't have a solid plan to get one probably isn't as desirable as a mate because he lacks ambition or intelligence or some other mysterious quality that we perceive as being necessary in our boyfriends. After all, a big percentage of us don't care so much about whether he has a job right this second...it's more about whether he's the type of guy who's proactive enough to find himself a new job and be able to support himself in the long run.”

Our verdict: OMG. And…well, I agree it’s completely reasonable. A man who isn’t at least trying to get a job or build a future is probably going to come across as lazy, whether or not that’s true. I know the economy sucks, but the least you can do is try to support yourself with any job, even if it’s just part-time. Are there really any of us who truly want to be “taken care of” like good old Betty Draper?

What do you think? Would you date an unemployed man?

• Love & Sex
• Dating
• OMG! WTF! LOL!
• The 4 1 1
• Unemployment
• Attraction
• Omg