In my mother's day, she didn't go to college. Not a lot of women did. Now for every two men who get a college degree, three women will do the same.

Breast-feeding does not belong in the realm of facts and hard numbers; it is much too intimate and elemental.

There are always signs that a reign is ending, and they are usually spotted not in the king himself but in his court. In the inner circle, latent jealousies between advisers spill into open conflict, as they angrily debate who is to blame for the calamity, chewing over each other's past errors and pointing the finger at old and nascent enemies.

In China, a lot of the opening up of private entrepreneurship is happening because women are starting businesses, small businesses, faster than men.

In the US in recent years, around a third of all open management positions have gone to women. My research over the last three years has shown that the trend is going in the same direction at all levels. And by the way, it's not necessarily that the rise of women is causing the end of men - it's more the other way around. An increasing number of men are failing during their education, losing their jobs and then not managing to get back on their feet, so women have had to step in. The driving force here isn't feminist conviction, it's economic necessity.

Fixing things around the house was the last bastion of manliness. But now, even that is getting taken away. As women become more economically independent, they are starting to fix things around the house for themselves.

If men can quilt and take over the kitchen, then women can pick up a wrench and fix a leaky pipe.