What the businesswoman does during the busiest shopping season of the year reflects her yearly rewards and her man’s call of duty.

Prada, Coach, and Louis Vuitton are beckoning. Signature features and prominent logos are on her mind as she heads for the latest from her favorite designers. Sometimes that special woman can go shopping alone. But it serves a two-fold mission in a woman's world to bring along a friend: she can share the joy of discovering the latest fashions, and she can spy on (perhaps even sabotage) her competition in the race to be chic. She hasn't been studying Sun Tzu's The Art of War, but the tactic of bringing in your enemy close enough to destroy her... comes natural to the fashion business maven. Hunting and gathering the things that speak to her style create a palpable lust, a fierce look in the eye, a quicker gait, and deliberate and confident gestures. That woman on a quest for the best is about to leave her dwelling and her man.

So what does HE do when she goes shopping?

He cooks on his Char-Broil Professional Series Stainless Steel Gas Grill to impress his buddies and himself. He sneaks out to the back patio and smokes a Cohiba Robusto—without interruption, without condemnation. He feels some anxiety about his perfectionism, his mortality, his middle age, and his humanness. It’s time for him to “cave.” He needs room and time to work through her latest demand-request, his latest career challenge, the needs of the children, the needs of parents coming into the autumn of their years, and the need he feels to express himself in a visceral way. He flips the power switch on his Line 6 guitar amplifier and plugs in his Paul Reed Smith Santana II guitar. While she is shopping he can be Carlos Santana, Steve Miller, Peter Frampton, Eddie Van Halen, Angus Young or Stevie Ray Vaughan. He can call his best friend to set a tee time because his Taylor Made golf clubs are leaning, looking unloved, in the corner of the garage. He takes the time to detail his truck to remove the fine Islamorada sand out of the crannies and crevices, where the detailer usually misses, and remembers the last speeding ticket he received and winces in pain.

As she cruises the mall proudly, she knows she is just as well off without him, but knows life is so much sweeter with him. She can provide for herself; excels in her career and enjoys opulence and financial security. But yet, this does not complete her. She wants him to be the leader, to surpass her in income and in professional status. A primal call to submit is heard, but does he get the message? The clothes and fancy things are merely acquisitions, and the stuff and fluff is just an accounting system in today's competitive society; yet, it means so much to her.

Her roles have changed as she, Woman, has moved from submissive helpmeet [1950s housewife] to a stand-alone unit. The year 2009 brought us a new television series, “The Good Wife,” chronicling the professional and personal life a grueling attorney. Julianna Margulies plays the role masterfully, seeking to push her agenda in the face of her snarling collogues. “I really find the parts of myself that the character has. So I believe that we all have everything within us, the ability to be a killer or the girlfriend of an insect,” states Margulies in a recent USA Today article.

You see, women are smart, driven, have compelling life stories, and appeal to the core loyalists of their respective party bases. Their roles have shifted from gatherer, to hunter and gatherer. Political strategist Dick Morris even wrote a book entitled “Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race,” which details the strength of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and his view of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s “calculated” run for the presidency back in 2008. Today, people are wondering: Which two women will be head-to-head and at what popularity race?

Women are so much more than a piece of real estate, and in today’s date, more than ever before, they need their man to stake his claim. Her tendency to nurture comes from centuries of motherhood, and she wants to express this nurturing instinct. Woman wants to rub Man on his head while reiterating that everything will be all right, coaxing him tactfully to steel himself up against the day's challenges. While the battle of the sexes is high and strong in the corporate world, this woman hangs her boxing gloves before she enters her home’s front door. She wants to be that enigma who needs her feet rubbed; yet she needs to serve him a silent night while stroking his ego. There is a need for him to be dominant (not domineering), and she wants him to cry when they watch The Notebook together—like he cries when he watches The Shawshank Redemption by himself. She wants to be taken care of, at home; but she doesn't want to be told what to do. This Man, this overgrown boy who must step up and be a man has just been rewarded a new life challenge. And although Rice says she is not interested in running for president, anytime soon, she may change her mind. And if she does, the race will be very attractive as a holistic study of humanity.