In the government's most recent measure of how women are faring — the Third Survey of the Social Status of Women in China, conducted in 2010 — nearly 62 percent of men and nearly 55 percent of women said "men belong in public life and women belong at home," increases of 7.7 and 4.4 percentage points from 2000.
The radical street politics of recent years are a measure of how the parliamentary system is failing to resolve the deep-seated divisions in Thai society.
The seizure of the quarry is a measure of how in recent months, as the Pakistani military has pulled back under a series of peace deals, the Pakistani Taliban have extended their reach through more of the rugged territory in northern Pakistan known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA.
The truly astonishing amount of material that came out after a recent visit by China's President Hu Jintao is a measure of how pivotal energy and climate change are between the U.S. and China.
In one measure of how fast this calendar has become in recent years, by the Ides of March 1984, seven states had held primaries, said Rhodes Cook, the author of "Race for the Presidency" (Congressional Quarterly Press, 1999).
So perhaps it was a measure of how much the area has changed in recent years that the police and the Mayor's Quality of Life Task Force have received several complaints this summer about the whooping, yelling and sermonizing.
It is a measure of how nervous the White House is, given Republican losses in the recent gubernatorial elections, that it dumped Gov. James Gilmore of Virginia as party chief last week.
It's a measure of how pathetic they've been in the limited-overs arena in recent times that few fans, armed with rotten eggs or tomatoes, will even bother with the journey to the airport.
Perhaps more noteworthy than his headline performance in the polls is the fact his unfavorable ratings among Republicans – a measure of how many of the party faithful could never countenance voting for him – have dropped dramatically in recent weeks.
A measure of how fast Burma is changing is that the 31-year-old musician became a member of parliament in recent elections.
