The women's movement is an uphill battle of Sisyphean proportions, with every step forward (the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act) quickly negated by five steps back (the movie Bride Wars). I've been a feminist since I was old enough to be argumentative, but I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the latest move by PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP). The parent company of Fritos, Doritos, and Lay's announced Thursday that it's launching its first snack food targeted specifically toward women. Uhh ... progress?

So, if Pepsi is right, the answer to Sigmund Freud's famous query, "What do women want?" is, "Popcorn." Seriously. The company plans to debut its new Smartfood popcorn clusters in March. The snack combines salty flavors with sweet, and -- prepare to be not at all shocked -- the popcorn clusters are low-calorie. You know, because we're all on diets and we hate our thighs.

Carly Fiorina was one of my all-time feminist heroes, so when she was summarily dismissed by the board of Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ), I was a bit miffed. And when the Patricia Dunn scandal began to unfold, I wanted to believe she was innocent. Or at least, well, sane.

When I discovered the mountain of evidence against Dunn, also implicating Fiorina, I felt a little bitter. But always in the back of my mind I have to wonder, how is it that two of the very few powerful women in technology were the biggest casualties of the pretexting scandal?

The Wall Street Journal [subscription required] suggests it may not be random: after all, statistics wouldn't favor two powerfully-placed women being let go in as many years. If it smells like a chauvinist, and walks like a chauvinist... you know the rest.

But it's, of course, not that easy. Alan Murray examines the two women's behavior in the days, and months, following their respective firings and finds them both wanting.