Without countless such confrontations -- large and small -- over "a woman's place" throughout our history, the ranks of women in executive suites, the U.S. Congress, courtrooms, surgical theaters, the military, and many other places in society would still be close to zero, and the idea of a female president would be as alien as a creature from Mars.

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Treatment that homes in on specific deficits held some value for the respondents, but the top five things they mentioned mostly have to do with help navigating a world that can be quite alien and gaining a better understanding from the other inhabitants of that world.

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It could be the past, it could be in the far future, you could be out in space, it could even be maybe told from the point of view of an alien.

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Organised by conservation groups IUCN and Birdlife, the high-level debate at the European Parliament in Brussels will consider measures that could be taken within the EU policy framework to mitigate the present and future threats from invasive alien species.

BBC: Report tracks threats from Europe's alien invasion