In 1991, Anita Hill went from being an obscure law school professor to the subject of a national controversy. As Clarence Thomas was nominated to be a justice on the Supreme Court, Hill came forward with accusations that Thomas sexually harassed her when she worked with him at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Hill's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee vaulted sexual harassment into the national dialogue, forever changing the way Americans talk about the topic.

Does unemployment affect males and females differently? The economic downturn has been called a "mancession." Are we now in the midst of a "he-covery?" According to the Pew Research Center, men lost more than twice as many jobs than women during the Great Recession, but the recovery has reversed that trend. Between June 2009 and May 2011, men gained jobs while women continued to lose them. What accounts for the unemployment gender gap, and will the trend continue?

Financial necessity is bringing more Pakistani women out of traditional roles at home and into service-sector jobs, despite cultural opposition. Pakistan's professional workforce has consisted mainly of men for generations, but more and more families need two incomes just to survive. Many working women have taken jobs with western companies, including McDonalds and KFC; but husbands and brothers often pressure them to give up their jobs, despite the extra money brought in.

On Monday's show, we'll be talking with Cheryl Kilodavis, author of the new children's book, "My Princess Boy." Cheryl wrote the book after she noticed her young son's preference for dressing up in girls' clothing. When has your child behaved in a way that made you reevaluate your beliefs or the way you parent? How did you react?

Post your comments below or leave us a message at 877-8-MY-TAKE.

Check out a video of Cheryl and her "princess boy," Dyson, after the jump.

When we look back on the wild west of American history, we frequently celebrate cowboys and Indians, wild buffalo and wide open country. But what we often leave out are the thousands of Chinese-Americans who worked on the Union Pacific railroad, lived in the many coal-mining towns, and struggled against the prejudices of their white neighbors and employers.

Yesterday we spoke with Hanna Rosin, contributing editor the The Atlantic Monthly. Hanna wrote a recent article called "The End of Men" which predicted a major shift of gender roles in American life.  Takeaway listeners took to the phone lines and the web to discuss her points. Many argued, like listener Austin Murrey of Oklahoma City that Rosin's points come as no surprise as women have long held power in our society.  He writes:

"Clearly women still face challenges in the macro-social arena (business, politics, etc.) but in the micro-social world, particularly romantic relationships, I think women hold significantly more power than men."

For the first time in U.S. history, women are now the majority of the workforce. They also get more college degrees than men, and two prominent women just won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate and governor in California, Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman, powerful businesswomen who turned to politics beat out male challengers. Women won elsewhere as well - in Iowa, Nevada, Arkansas and South Carolina. 

The American workforce is still surprisingly segregated by gender, and this separation does not seem to benefit women. Two-thirds of working women are concentrated in only five percent of occupational categories. And in the few fields where more than 90 percent of workers are women – like childcare and food preparation – the pay tends to be low. Compare this low pay to male-dominated industries (there are a lot of them). Almost one in four job categories, such as construction work and trucking consist of workforces that are almost exclusively male. And those same jobs pay up to 30 percent more than traditionally female jobs like secretarial work.

Carrie and "the girls" are back in 'Sex and the City 2.' There's shopping, there's sex, there's Mr. Big, and there's expensive fashion in the latest chick-flick from the SATC franchise, which women have been patiently awaiting for two years. But, is this movie good or bad for the women who are watching it?

Last week, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study stating that approximately ten percent of new dads experience postpartum depression.

We speak with the author behind that study, Dr. James Paulson of the Eastern Virginia Medical School. He explains how postpartum depression in men differs from the same condition in women, whether hormonal fluctuations play a role in how it manifests itself, and what treatment options are available.

As Irina Aleksander sees it, the feminist movement of decades past was defined, to a great extent, by the fight for access to contraception and abortion. But today, in middle class urban circles, she believes feminism can be seen in family-oriented fights for breastfeeding acceptance and stroller parking — a movement she calls "faminism."

In her words: "Our mothers fought so that we could choose the life we wanted, not so that we were forced into a paradigm where family didn't matter."

President Obama announced yesterday his nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. If confirmed, Kagan would be the third woman and the third Jew — the highest number ever of either group — to sit in the high court. She would also become the court's fourth New Yorker. And for the first time in history, there would be no Protestant justice.

But how much do all of these diversity numbers matter? What attribute is most important for a Supreme Court justice?

Today marks the 75^th anniversary of Amelia Earhart’s successful flight from Honolulu to Oakland, California.She was the first woman to fly solo across the Pacific.  To help update the history of women in aviation we talk to another pioneer who has also participated in many firsts for women pilots: Major Nicole Malachowski is a senior pilot in the Air Force and just five years ago became the first woman to join part of the elite Thunderbird squad, also known as the Air Force Aerial Demonstration Squadron.

We’re looking at a story from our newest listening area, Denver, where school officials have just announced a new experiment in school choice, offering the choice for parents to send their daughters to an all-girls public school.   It’s a growing national trend, and Denver is one of the latest school systems to welcome the idea.

Joining us to talk about the all-girls charter school that will open up in 2010 is Kristin Waters, assistant superintendent of Denver Public Schools: She will head up the new school's office. We also speak with Bridget Ambler, a Denver mother who is ready to sign her daughter up for classes, well before the school is set to open.

More women than ever are returning home from military duty, but many Veteran Affairs centers don’t have adequate services for womens' health. We talk this morning with Ann Brown, director of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in  Martinsburg, West Virginia, and retired Marine Capt. Anu Bhagwati, executive director of the Service Women's Action Network, about what VA facilities need to do to better accommodate female needs.

The National Women's Law Center released a sobering analysis of private insurance companies this month called "Still Nowhere to Turn: Insurance Companies Treat Women Like a Pre-Existing Condition." The report includes data that show that even without childbirth coverage, women pay from 10 to 50 percent more than men for the same insurance. We're joined by Judy Waxman, vice president of the National Women's Law Center.

This morning we're discussing technology companies who have made diversity a priority. When Larry Page and Sergey Brin set up Google, they made diverse hiring a goal. It wasn’t for the sake of being politically correct — they thought it would be good for business. We speak to Marissa Mayer, vice president of search product and user experience at Google (and one of Google’s first employees); along with Xerox’s chief diversity and employee advocacy officer, Philip Harlow. We also look at how minorities lag behind at research universities with Donna Nelson, a chemistry professor at the University of Oklahoma, who authored a report: "A National Analysis in Science and Engineering Faculties at Research Universities (opens a PDF)."

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, we're soon likely to see a major shift in the gender balance of the working world. As early as this November, it's projected that for the first time in U.S. history, more women will be working than men. Add to this fact that 78 percent of the people laid off in the recent recession were men, and one sees a whole new picture of America's workforce.

We speak with Beth Kobliner, author of "Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties." She says the forces changing the demographics of the working world influence both men and women. Also, Sharon Meers, a former Goldman Sachs executive and co-author of "Getting to 50/50: How Working Couples Can Have It All by Sharing It All," explains what the shifts might mean for the managers and workers of small and large companies across the country.

What are the biggest moral challenges we face today? We're joined by two people who have given a lot of thought to cultural challenges around the world, including poverty, racism, and the systematic oppression of women. Nick Kristof is a columnist for The New York Times, and his wife Sheryl WuDunn a former New York Times correspondent.

They are authors of the new book “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” and wrote the article in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, "The Women's Crusade."

Forbes is set to release their list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women. In honor of the women who will appear on that list, we put together our own roundtable to discuss what it means to be a powerful woman today, as well as who they think should be topping the list. Sarah Palin? Tina Fey? Angela Merkel? Oprah?

Our guests: Anna Deavere Smith, the Tony Award nominated actress, playwright and current Artist-in-Residence at the Center for American Progress; Faye Wattleton, former president for Planned Parenthood and current president of the Center for the Advancement of Women; and Carol Jenkins, president of the Women’s Media Center.