Despite growing doubts expressed by colleagues, Weitzman reiterated her “73/42” statistic testifying before the U.S. Congress. Legislatures around the country also reconsidered their divorce laws in reaction to her findings. In fact, Weitzman personally took credit in 1996 for shaping 14 laws in California alone.51 President Bill Clinton actually cited her book’s findings in his 1996 budget proposal.52 And, as I noted above, Weitzman’s erroneous findings continue to be cited today without problem in the best-selling Introduction to Sociology textbook on the market, 15 years after Peterson’s
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