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Sheryl Sandberg's explosive "Lean In" — a muscular manifesto on the gender inequities of the professional world — is being published within weeks of the 50th anniversary of Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique." It's a convergence destined to invite disparaging comparisons, to prompt people to holler about how they knew Betty Friedan and that Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook and one of the most powerful women in the tech world, is no Betty Friedan.

It's been a groundbreaking year for women in business. IBM appointed its first female CEO in Ginni Rometty. Sheryl Sandberg led Facebook through a much-anticipated IPO. Irene Rosenfeld split Kraft into two public companies, and Marissa Mayer jumped from a top Google exec to the CEO seat at Yahoo. See the those named the top businesswomen on the Forbes 2012 list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women.

Like many expectant mothers these days, Autumn Yates posted updates about her pregnancy on Facebook. “It’s nice for my extended family to see pictures from time to time of me getting bigger and little comments like, ‘34-week check-up went well!’ ” said Yates, 29, a Spanish teacher from Oakton. “I don’t see anything wrong with that. I think there is kind of a line sometimes, though.”