Women invented the division of labor. And we wonder why the division of labor is so often skewed against us. Let's go back a few thousand (or hundred thousand) years ago and see what happened.

I learned in my college anthropology course that in pre-agricultural societies there was a clear division of labor between men and women. Men hunted and women gathered. Today, in a paper just published in "Current Anthropology" Steve Kuhn and Mary Stiner of the University of Arizona, proposed that this division of labor happened early in the species history, and that it is what enabled modern humans to expand their population at the expense of Neanderthals.

It appears that Neanderthals developed little or no specialisation skills and no division of labor. This means that they weren't able to capitalise on converting the skins of the big game they hunted into making clothing for themselves. It means that they did not hunt and eat small game, nor did they collect nuts and grains. According to Kuhn and Stiner, signs of the division of labor come only with the arrival of modern humans into Europe 40,000 years ago. It is commonly understood that the men were stronger and faster -- thus the hunters. Women were occupied with child rearing.

If it were the division of labor that gave humans the evolutionary edge over Neanderthals and it was women who multi tasked between gathering plants, hunting small game and making clothing and shelter during the colder times of the year which is clearly specialisation--- it isn't much of a leap to concur with Kuhn and Stiner to "assign to women the main role in establishing the antecedents of modern economics, and thus launching the process of growth that continues to this day."

Have you tried your kid's Ritalin yet? I had just such an opportunity to loot my elderly mother's medicine cabinet a couple of years ago. This was right around the time that the show I most Tivo'd was "Desparate Housewives" and my aha moment arrived in the form of Lynette Scavo who was stressed out and harasssed enough in her supermom role to down her son's medicine.

As I recall, that time, I hightailed it to my local organic grocer to stock up on chamomile homeopathics to cope with the stress of family and work. You can't overdose on homeopathics. I checked into it. But ADHD -attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a diagnosis on the rise for women according to author Sari Solden. She has written a book, "Women with Attention Deficit Disorder" which asserts that millions of women are suffering and cannot get the help they need. Given that the American market alone for ADD drugs is already worth over $3 billion, if women begin to get the help Solden suggests they desparately need, the potential market will double.

The frequency of diagnosis and treatment of children and ADD is a contentious battlefield. But even a middle of the road opinion that this disorder exists allows that people under stress (including mothers going out to work) may be quick to say they have it. The December 9th issue of The Economist describes the global plight of women who say they have trouble focusing their attention for long enough to deal with the problem. "Even in countries where the syndrome is recognised among children, it is hard for women to be treated for ADHD." Whether the problem stems from lack of understanding, skepticism, religious beliefs or presumed hypochondria, the growing number of women coming forward portends a new feminist cause.