Misleading statistics at UNICEF,,,,

This is pretty common in the feminist world...

At first I assumed UNICEF director Ann Veneman had been terribly misquoted.

This was the statement the media attributed to her: "We know that women do about 66 percent of the work in the world. They produce 50 percent of the food, but earn 5 percent of the income and own 1 percent of the property." But then I checked, and that's what she said. It was right on the UNICEF website.

The implication of Veneman's comment was clear: Around the world, men are lazy dolts who lord over downtrodden women.

But I was a skeptical. So I called the UNICEF press office and asked for the source of those damning statistics. Press aide Kate Donovan cheerfully reassured me that Veneman is "very picky about her facts" and promised she'd get back to me. She never did.

Google to the rescue. Many mouse-clicks later I arrived at another U.N. webpage devoted to the Millenium Development Goals.

Ah ha! – right there on page 2 was the elusive quote, along with its source: Womankind Worldwide.

So then I contacted Womankind Worldwide, asking for the exact name of the source document. And here's the long-awaited response from a Julia Czastka: "I can tell you that the facts given in this quote are from the U.N."

Let's see … Group A relies on Group B, Group B bounces us over to Group C, and Group C sends us back to Group A. In my neck of the woods, that's called recycling the trash. Ms. Veneman, may we consider your statement a candidate for the Phony Statistics Hall of Fame?

If you want a lot more examples, just check out Christina Hoff Sommers book, "Who Stole Feminism?".