People react so emotionally to politics, I have decided to assess the decade just past by considering something less partisan but no less illuminating: culture.
Start with the music I have been listening to over the last few weeks. Every December I buy the albums that appear on the various "best of" lists. This year my pile of compact discs is mostly music recorded by women — Billie Eilish, Angel Olsen, Sharon Van Etten, Lana Del Rey, Taylor Swift, Jenny Lewis, FKA Twigs and others. This was much less the case 10 years ago.
That brings me to what I see as the No. 1 trend of the decade: the increasing influence of women.