The world is heading towards the fastest pace in technologic and scientific transformation it has ever known. Giant steps have been taken assuring big changes in the world in the next twenty years. Wonderful things with extraordinary results are expected to happen in the fields of medicine, pharmacology, psychiatry, psychology and social development. New solutions to global problems like pollution, deforestation and animal extinction are going to play important roles in our lives. DNA manipulation, cloning and space initiatives are also expected to contribute much to the future of the human race. Our planet is changing rapidly, as our its people.

One thing is certain, gender roles are going to witness dramatic changes over the next twenty years. Below are predictions that may sound absurd, crazy or in some cases "utopian" but, I believe that they can, and many will, happen.

1. Women will become more "masculine" and men will become more "feminine." Worldwide women will take more active roles in the work force. Increasingly they will become the decision-makers in the house and in the workplace. We will see more women involved in politics, leading businesses, and being the prime earner in the family, often from non-traditional roles such as electrical repair and fighter pilots. Women will also prove to be more assertive and independent.

Men will become domestic and children oriented. Men will have show greater respect for the "Home Institution," women, and children in general. Cooperation and respect for the "significant other" will be more palpable, and stereotypes about what a man or a woman should do will not be heard.

2. Women will work to become more physically developed. Job opportunities and sports that were once for men only, will become women's things too.
3. Abnormalities in development will be monitored and treated, even before the baby is born, thanks to the technological and scientific advances. Doctors are going to be able to work with the fertilized egg inside the mother with a high percentage of success. Birth anomalies in developed countries will plummet.
4. There will be answers to questions like, how biological influences determine behavior, or does social stimuli alter both psychology and biology. These are two dynamic and fascinating areas of research that will yield answers, maybe even before 2020.
5. There will be a scientific explanation for Homosexuality and Heterosexuality. There will also be a global understanding and acceptance of the "gay." Heterosexual men and women will learn to accept and appreciate a gay person for what they are.
6. Sexually transmitted diseases will be eradicated forever. One painless shot will be all it takes.
7. Moral, spiritual and family values will become stronger than ever.
8. Studies will definitively confirm that education is the key to a better quality of life. Education plus physical and mental health will become priority # 1 in every country.
9. Deviant and criminal behavior will be cured by simple operations done on the brain (perhaps at the hypothalamus maybe) at the doctor's office and every medical plan will cover it.
10. The two parents will choose physical characteristics of the children beforehand, thanks to the DNA manipulation advances. The mother will have the "last word"(some things never change).
11. Stereotyped differences in children (toys, games and sports) will blur thanks to psychological and sociological studies that will report that it is healthy and beneficial for both sexes to assume passive and active roles when playing.

On a lighter note, in the year 2020 men will be protesting and marching in front of Capitol Hill demanding "men's liberation" and burning their jock straps in the street (what an ugly picture that will be). Women will dominate the Congress and the Senate. "Oprah Winfrey" will be the speaker of both branches. Leading candidates for the U.S. Presidency will be "Janet Reno" for the Democrats, and "Rosie O'Donnell" for the Republicans. RuPaul will also be running as an independent candidate. The gay community will dominate "Wall street" and will make legislation to change the name of "Wall Street" to something more sophisticated and refined, like "Le'Chic Street." Also in the year 2020, STD's will no longer exist thanks to a discovery made by a Puerto Rican scientist who mixed Bacardi rum with Penicillin and some other secret patented ingredients.