| Men must learn to send gift baskets early and often | | | | devoted women need gift baskets brimful of |
| as women encounter and endure overwhelming | | | | comfort foods and tiny solaces. |
| pressure at work. | | | | A properly sensitive, thoughtful man will understand |
| Sometime late in 2009, women out-numbered men in | | | | how over-worked and under-appreciated professional |
| the United States workforce for the first time since | | | | women do not need flowers and cards, the simple |
| the end of World War II. Whatever this development | | | | stuff of romance. They need big baskets full of fruit, |
| may reveal about productivity, gender roles, and the | | | | cheese, wine, cookies, lotions, body sprays, |
| American economy, it testifies to the | | | | aromatherapy candles, under-eye concealers, and |
| greater-than-ever urgency of sending gift baskets. | | | | more wine. A truly dedicated American man will |
| Shifting workforce dynamics challenge men to | | | | recognize the value of adding a gift certificate for an |
| assume the majority of responsibility for sending gift | | | | aromatherapy massage to the gift-basket mix. |
| baskets to their hard-working, multi-tasking, majorly | | | | Without the carefully chosen and well-timed gift |
| stressing partners. | | | | basket, the American economic recovery cannot |
| In the first decade of the twenty-first century, | | | | proceed. |
| women have graduated from college at five times | | | | For a woman dedicated to keeping corporate |
| the rate of men. Not surprisingly, therefore, the | | | | America growing and prospering, a gift basket is far |
| United States has approximately equal numbers of | | | | timelier and much more appreciated under the |
| men and women practicing law. The same soon will | | | | pressure of an impossible deadline than in the |
| be true of medicine. Men, therefore, must understand | | | | moment of triumph over the clock. As a woman |
| that these two demanding professions show no | | | | burns the midnight oil, keeping seven documents |
| respect for a woman's time, endurance, or | | | | open on her screen all at once, un-sticking the copy |
| circumstances. An attorney waging a spirited defense | | | | machine and showing her dominance over the |
| of her client cannot rest until the verdict comes in. A | | | | collator, she needs chocolate, she requires cookies, |
| pediatrician investing all of her spirit and knowledge in | | | | and she must have exotic teas and coffees. |
| saving a "neo-nate" cannot truly relax until that baby | | | | Red-blooded American men must step-up and take |
| breathes on his own. These dedicated professionals | | | | responsibility for delivering these essentials properly |
| need emotional and physical sustenance. These | | | | basketed and bowed. |