Men and women often have different ideas of what’s important—and at what point “important” topics should be 

raised. A woman told me, with lingering astonishment, of a conversation with her boyfriend. Knowing he had seen his 

friend Oliver, she asked, “What’s new with Oliver?” He replied, “Nothing.” 41 , later in the conversation it came 

out that Oliver and his girlfriend had decided to get married. “That’s nothing?” the woman gasped in 42 . 

<br>    For men, “Nothing” may be a ritual 43 at the start of a conversation. A college woman missed her brother but 

rarely called him because she found it difficult to get talk going. A 44 conversation began with her asking, “What’s 

up with you?” and his replying, “Nothing.” Hearing his “Nothing” as meaning “There is nothing personal I want to talk 

about,” she supplied talk by filling him in on her news and 45 hung up in frustration. But when she thought back, she remembered that later in the conversation he had mumbled, “Christie and I got into another fight.” This came so late 

and so low that she didn’t pick up on it. And he was probably equally frustrated that she didn’t. 

    Having a seven-day week seemed strange to sociologists since there was no corresponding geophysical event as there was with the solar day or the lunar month. They tended to attribute it to our cultures and not to biology. However, other organisms also have a seven-day cycle, and a week is, after all, a quarter of a lunar circle. At the end of the French Revolution, the revolutionary government wanted to establish a ten-day week, but the attempt failed to work. In the former Soviet Union, the rulers also experimented with modifying the week by trying five-day and six-day weeks. Again, people rejected to change the length of their week. They seemed to need to have one day out of seven in order to rest their body clocks. Weekly rhythms show up most strongly during times of stress. For the body to fight off a cold, it needs about a week. The symptoms of chicken pox show up about two weeks after the patient’s being exposed to disease. Health care workers expect to see patients with pneumonia and malaria at greatest risk after one week of fighting these diseases. By these evidences, sociologists have had reasons to reconsider their previous ideas about the origin of the seven-day week.

        The idea of women becoming superwomen comes from women’s long fight against discrimination.Women have long sought new roles outside of the home and the traditional duties 15 wives and mothers. Worldwide, such roles generally emerged in the 1950s and 1960s because of World War II,television, and new contraceptives.

        First, during World War II, women in many countries were 16 to take over the jobs of men. They found that they were not only able to do the same work as men, and that they could often do it better! When the war ended, many women did not want to 17 their jobs. They started their own businesses.

        Second, television meant women could see 18 other women around the world were changing their situations. Third, the development of the contraceptive pills in the 1960s meant women could plan their university studies, work, and pregnancies.