Albert Einstein may have been the man of the 20th century, but it was the Century of the Woman and the changes it set in motion are only beginning to be appreciated.

Time magazine actually named Einstein "Person of the Century," but its adoption of gender-neutral verbiage does little to suggest the magnitude of the change that women accomplished and confronted in the 1900s. Called the longest revolution in history, it is also one of its most profound.

Part of it can be traced to science. Thanks largely to improved medical care, particularly the elimination of much of the danger of childbirth, women can now expect to live 10 percent longer than men. Never before has that been true.

Children’s survival rate increased, too. That allowed for smaller families and the possibility of new choices.

One alternative presented itself when women were drawn into the workplace to support the century’s industrial wars. Asked to perform not just "women’s work, but the higher-skilled, better-paying, jobs reserved for men, not all of them were happy to leave at war’s end.

Even so, by mid-century little had changed. Women had been given the vote 50 years after black men but had little individual choice or opportunity outside the home. Their response came to be called the women’s movement and its influence was soon felt.

As its "Man of the Year" for 1975, Time recognized "American Women." Its story began: "They have arrived like a new immigrant wave in male America."

And, change did come fast. In the 1950s only 20 percent of undergraduate college students were women; in 1990 women made up 54 percent. Thirty-five percent of women worked outside the home in 1960; in 1990, 58 percent.

The long-predicted political "gender gap" appeared in 1980 when Ronald Reagan fared noticeably better among men then with women voters. By 1996 it was such that 16 percent more women than men voted for Bill Clinton. "Women’s issues" have become mainstream concerns.

For all that’s been accomplished, however, the freedoms won in the 20th century have benefited too few women. And, too many have suffered from thinking that the ability to "have it all" means that they have to do it all.