What the economy requires now is a whole different set of skills: You need intelligence, you need an ability to sit still and focus, to communicate openly to be able to listen to people and to operate in a workplace that is much more fluid than it used to be. Those are things that women do extremely well.

In American fertility clinics, 75 percent of couples are requesting girls and not boys.

That's not a convincing argument. Public sector jobs are cyclical. Teachers get fired when money is tight, then rehired when things get better. Manufacturing jobs, on the other hand, aren't coming back. They're relics of a past age.

One way the Tea Party has benefited female candidates - and the conservative movement generally - is by consciously steering clear of social issues.

If my own current husband was suddenly a stay-at-home dad, it would be emasculating. That would be hard for me.

Factories not what they used to be - they're all extremely high-tech.

Evolutionary psychology tells us that men, especially powerful men, feel invincible and entitled to spread their seed, and that women can't resist the scent of masculine power. Women, by contrast, are said to be more altruistic and collaborative, seeking power so that they can share it with others.