Here's A Shock for Women

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But among the most powerful women- and many other high-level women-this is a red-hot topic. They gossip about it. They marvel at it. They compare notes. They know which colleagues have husbands at home and which do not. They know which are married to doctors: Shelly Lazarus and Meg Whitman. (Doctors travel infrequently and can often set their own hours.) They are envious of women whose husbands have retired. Most of all they debate, How important is it to have a man at home helping you get to the top? Very important, says Dina Dublon. "My spouse would say that I probably have enough drive and ambition that I would have done this even if he weren't there," she says. "But there is no doubt in my mind that the extent to which I can do this is because of his willingness to be at home."