As I have given more thought to the idea of this new book, this thought came to me:
We live in a world of dichotemies. Even as American women gain more financial freedom, other women are still being sold into slavery through the sex trafficking trade.

Even as more women in developed countries choose singlehood over marriage, women in Yemen are organizing to support legislation that would make it illegal for girls under the age of 17 to be married.

As young women become the majority of college graduates, we see the need to focus on why young men aren't entering college and graduating at the same rates.

So in the next several posts, I will be focusing on what I call the "Two Sides of the Coin." I would like to hear your thoughts on these issues. Take a minute to think about any dichotemies that you see around you and drop me a note.

Today's post will be a discussion on how some women are gaining financial power even as others are truly powerless as they are bought and sold in an international network of sex trafficking.

In a report issued by the Pew Foundation, researchers estimated that in 22 percent of marriages women have higher income levels than their husbands as of 2007; up from just 4 percent in 1970. Also notable was a rise, although smaller, in education levels of women in marriages. In 28 percent of marriages, women had higher education levels than their husbands in 2007, versus 20 percent 40 years ago.

You can take a look at the executive summary of the report by clicking here.

Yet even as these reports offer up a positive view of women's increasing financial power, there are startling reports about sex trafficking--the buying and selling of women (and men as well) into the sex trade. The issue of sex trafficking in America came to my attention when I was in Columbus, Ohio to talk to the Women's Fund of Central Ohio.

Even as we were discussing how much economic power women had gained over the years, a woman in the audience questioned me on what I thought of the growing sex trafficking problem in central and southern Ohio--an issue that was being covered extensively by the Columbus Post-Dispatch. For more on their coverage click here.

The newspaper, quoting from the U.S. State Department, estimates that between 15,000 and 18,000 young women are trafficked every year in the U.S.

For my part, I was startled by the statistics. Moreover, I realized that like many I consider sex trafficking something that happens somewhere else in the world--not Columbus, Ohio or Ann Arbor, Mich. The issue has been on my mind since that discussion in September.

So how do we square these two sides of the coin? What do we make of the growth of economic power for women as supported by the Pew research even as we see the continued growth of the sex trafficking trade? What do you make of these issues?

Le me know by commenting here. Let's keep the conversation going.