2020年经济学人 巴托比职场专栏--女性的职场发展(1)

Business

来源于《商业》版块

Bartleby

巴托比职场专栏

A woman’s work

女性的工作

Women have made great strides in the employment market over the past 50 years. But many still feel that their progress is being obstructed¹ and, to coincide with International Women’s Day on March 8th, two new books by feminist² writers tackle the issues.

在过去的50年里，女性在就业市场上取得了巨大的进步。但许多女性仍然认为进步受到了阻碍，而且，正符合3月8日国际妇女节主题，女权主义作家的两本新书也在探讨这个问题。

In “The Fix” Michelle King, director of inclusion at Netflix, a video-streaming giant, observes that women are constantly told they need to change themselves—be more assertive³, work longer hours and so on. Instead, she argues, working practices should change to accommodate the needs of half the adult population. In “The Home Stretch” Sally Howard, a journalist, suggests that a big reason why women are held back is that even those who work full-time⁴ are still expected to do the bulk of the housework. To cite the book’s lengthy⁵ but apposite subtitle⁶, she makes a strong case “why it’s time to come clean about who does the dishes”.

视频流媒体巨头Netflix的包容性部门主管米歇尔?金在《The Fix》一书中提到，女性经常被告知需要改变自己——更加自信，工作时间更长等等。与此相反，她认为，工作方式应该改变，以适应一半成年人口的需要。在《The Home Stretch》一书中，记者萨莉?霍华德指出，女性受限制的一个重要原因是，即使是全职工作的女性也被要求承担大部分家务。引用这本书冗长而贴切的副标题，她提出了一个强有力的理由:“为什么是时候明确谁来洗碗了”。

Male managers may find these books an uncomfortable read, peppered with talk of the patriarchy and gender⁷ privilege. Sometimes, the authors go too far. Ms Howard links the patriarchy with capitalism⁸ so often that one wonders whether she has ever seen a picture of the Soviet⁹ Union’s all-male politburo.

男性管理者可能会发现，这些书读起来让人不舒服，里面充斥着父权制和性别特权的言论。有时，作者的确言辞过激。霍华德女士如此频繁地将父权制与资本主义联系在一起，以至于人们不禁要问，她是否见过苏联政治局全部由男性组成的画面。

But men do not need to forsake¹⁰ the capitalist system to appreciate the plight¹¹ of female workers. They just need empathy. Are women in the workplace judged by the same standards as their male colleagues? Are they described with adjectives (strident or emotional, for example) that would not be applied¹² to men with the same characteristics?

但是，男人并不需要放弃资本主义制度来欣赏女工人的困境。他们只是需要同理心。职场女性是否与男同事评判标准相同？他们是否用了一些形容词(如刺耳的或情绪化的)来描述女性，而这些形容词并不适用于具有相同特征的男性？

Despite recent progress, women still face a glass ceiling. A couple of stories in Ms King’s book illustrate¹³ the point. Sarah was an executive at a multinational¹⁴ who worked late, underwent management training and enthusiastically received and acted on feedback. After many years of rejection¹⁵, it seemed she was due for promotion¹⁶ to the next tier, which was 100% male. But at the key meeting a male executive said: “I don’t know; she just doesn’t fit. She has those glasses and she wears that clip in her hair.” Not exactly “scientific management”.

尽管最近有所进步，但是女性仍然面临着玻璃天花板。金女士书中的几个故事说明了这一点。萨拉是一家跨国公司的高管，她工作到很晚，接受过管理培训，热情地接受反馈并采取行动。她似乎本应该晋升一个级别，如果是男性100%会晋升，但她多年遭到拒绝。但在关键会议上，一位男性高管表示:“我不知道；她就是不适合。她戴着眼镜，头上戴着发夹。”不完全是“科学管理”。

1 obstructed   

阻塞( obstruct的过去式和过去分词 )； 堵塞； 阻碍； 阻止

参考例句：

• Tall trees obstructed his view of the road. 有大树挡着，他看不到道路。
• The Irish and Bristol Channels were closed or grievously obstructed. 爱尔兰海峡和布里斯托尔海峡或遭受封锁，或受到了严重阻碍。

2 feminist   

adj.主张男女平等的，女权主义的

参考例句：

• She followed the feminist movement.她支持女权运动。
• From then on,feminist studies on literature boomed.从那时起，男女平等受教育的现象开始迅速兴起。

3 assertive   

adj.果断的，自信的，有冲劲的

参考例句：

• She always speaks an assertive tone.她总是以果断的语气说话。
• China appears to have become more assertive in the waters off its coastline over recent years.在近些年，中国显示出对远方海洋的自信。

4 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

5 lengthy   

adj.漫长的，冗长的

参考例句：

• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。
• The professor wrote a lengthy book on Napoleon.教授写了一部有关拿破仑的巨著。

6 subtitle   

n.副题（书本中的），说明对白的字幕

参考例句：

• His new book has a subtitle.他的新书有一个副标题。
• Ah!I don't know why they don't subtitle these movies.唉！我不知道这些电影为什么不打字幕。

7 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

8 capitalism   

n.资本主义

参考例句：

• The essence of his argument is that capitalism cannot succeed.他的论点的核心是资本主义不能成功。
• Capitalism began to develop in Russia in the 19th century.十九世纪资本主义在俄国开始发展。

9 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

10 forsake   

vt.遗弃，抛弃；舍弃，放弃

参考例句：

• She pleaded with her husband not to forsake her.她恳求丈夫不要抛弃她。
• You must forsake your bad habits.你必须革除你的坏习惯。

11 plight   

n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定

参考例句：

• The leader was much concerned over the plight of the refugees.那位领袖对难民的困境很担忧。
• She was in a most helpless plight.她真不知如何是好。

12 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

13 illustrate   

v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图

参考例句：

• The company's bank statements illustrate its success.这家公司的银行报表说明了它的成功。
• This diagram will illustrate what I mean.这个图表可说明我的意思。

14 multinational   

adj.多国的，多种国籍的；n.多国籍公司，跨国公司

参考例句：

• The firm was taken over by a multinational consulting firm.这家公司被一个跨国咨询公司收购。
• He analyzed the relationship between multinational corporations and under-developed countries.他分析了跨国公司和不发达国家之间的关系。

15 rejection   

n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃

参考例句：

• He decided not to approach her for fear of rejection.他因怕遭拒绝决定不再去找她。
• The rejection plunged her into the dark depths of despair.遭到拒绝使她陷入了绝望的深渊。

16 promotion   

n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传

参考例句：

• The teacher conferred with the principal about Dick's promotion.教师与校长商谈了迪克的升级问题。
• The clerk was given a promotion and an increase in salary.那个职员升了级，加了薪。