She had the nerve to tell the women this

She had the nerve to tell the women of Princeton that if they want a husband, they’d better snag one in college.

Susan Patton, a Princeton alum, one of the first 200 female Princeton graduates, was speaking at one of those campus conferences on Women and Leadership. The wise old alums talked about the career challenges facing young women. But she found the young women had no interest in hearing yet again about “networking” – they wanted to know about friendships, and starting a successful family.

So Susan leveled with them: if you want a husband, pick one from Princeton, because “you will never again have this concentration of men who are worthy of you.”

As she told CNN, “My advice to them was, take a good look on campus now for a potential life partner.”

The career women on the cable networks seemed to think this was high treason. So I decided to check with my wife, who as it turns out lassoed her husband 40 years ago, her senior year at Cornell – not Princeton, I realize, but still not a bad school. I asked her if it was somehow anti-feminist to suggest that college is the best time for high achieving women to find a compatible spouse.
　
“No, because I think that’s true.
　
And then I asked her if she felt under pressure to find an intellectually superior husband her senior year:
　
“Who is to say that you’re my intellectual superior?!”

I asked, “So what was your fallback position if I had decided not to marry you and you would have had to start hunting after college?”

“Eh, I probably wouldn’t have.”

“You wouldn’t have married at all?”

“Nah.”

And – I think that’s where I’ll leave this topic, because one of the things I’ve learned as a wise old alum is to quit when I’m ahead.