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Emily, I absolutely agree that the personal and professional have become hopelessly entangled in this election. In her 11th day in the spotlight, Palin has already been compared to movie stars, a TV chef, and an '80s pop star turned reality TV darling. Faster than you can say, ''Bitch is the new black,'' it seems, a new celebrity comparison ...

Stand outside any campaign event and you'll see profiteers hocking their wares. Bumper stickers, playing cards, pins, posters, T-shirts, even pet-wear—if it's got Obama's face on it, chances are someone will pay for it. But will this merchandise be worth anything after Election Day? If the recent past is any indication, no. Representatives from ...

This week's renewed discussions about women ''opting out'' of the work force—or being forced out—make me think of Joan Didion's 1967 essay ''Goodbye to All That.'' It's about her life in 1950s New York as a twentysomething, when the city emblematized endless possibility, even though she was making very little money. She loved her career and ...

I'm encouraged by the announcement from the Department of Defense yesterday about the nomination of Army Lt. Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody to the position of four-star general. If the Senate confirms her nomination, Dunwoody will be the first woman to attain a status that historically has been achieved through combat jobs, which women are not allowed to ...

While I can't answer Melinda's question of whether the bar for mothers-who-do-it-all was always set so high, as a young twentysomething just starting out in my career, I can see that bar vaulting upward among the women of my own generation. With few glass ceilings remaining, the limits to our professional ambitions seem next to nonexistent. But ...