True, I am not claiming that all, or even most, girls who work in a law firm for 20 years automatically wouldn’t classify themselves as “Yeshivish.” But it does chip away at the percentages.
Indeed, part of the problem is the word “Yeshivish.” Many wouldn’t necessarily classify themselves as Modern Orthodox, if not for the fact that the only alternate term offered was “Yeshivish,” a term that they wouldn’t apply for themselves either. Remember, many girls never go to shul or any shiur. Their connection to Yeshivish orthodoxy is very tenuous, and depends on being surrounded by other Yeshivish people, which obviously doesn’t exist in the law firm.
I spoke to the lead author of the study about a year ago and he mentioned that THE central factor of the shidduch crisis is the fact that as people remain single, they longer classify themselves as Yeshivish.