Who Works More? Bridging the Divide

I'd wager that there is no one who is married and employed who does not have a conversation--heck, an argument--with his or her spouse about who does more at home and at the office. Since women started moving into the workplace in large numbers in the 1970s, the accepted wisdom has been that women have had a "second shift"--that their workday is followed by much more labor at home. But Ruth Davis Konigsberg's cover story uses new research to show that the divide has narrowed, not because women are doing less but because men are doing more--at least, more than they've been given credit for. This thesis is sure to provoke heated discussion--it has here in our story meetings at TIME, plus my wife is demanding to see the evidence, as will a lot of our readers. In what little free time you have after work, read the story, and you be the judge.

There are plenty of analogies that are clear, simple--and false. One of them is that if people have to balance their budgets, why doesn't the federal government? Curious Capitalist columnist Rana Foroohar explains why the comparison is misleading. The irony is that even though our financial crisis was caused by too much borrowing and spending, it can be solved only by more borrowing and spending.

Finally, Nairobi-based photographer Jehad Nga joined a U.N. convoy to make his way to Kenya's Dadaab refugee complex, the largest in the world. It is home to nearly 400,000 people, many of whom have fled famine-ravaged Somalia--with another 70,000 in makeshift shelters outside. The complex is equipped to host only 90,000. More of Nga's wrenching images can be found at TIME.com's LightBox.

Richard Stengel, MANAGING EDITOR