2020年经济学人 巴托比职场专栏--女性的职场发展(2)

In the other tale Ms King, on her first day in a new job, walked into a kitchen full of men. Her boss said “Hey, Michelle, there are dishes in the sink and you are a woman, so, you know, wash them.” His colleagues laughed. When she protested, she was told to learn to take a joke.

在另一个故事中，金女士在她新工作的第一天，走进了一个满是男性的厨房。她的老板说:“嘿，米歇尔，水槽里有盘子，你是女人，所以，你懂得，把它们洗了吧。” 他的同事们都笑了。当她抗议时，她被告知要学会开玩笑。

Bullying¹ disguised as humour is still bullying. And women are expected to put up with it. They must also tolerate different dress standards. Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister, often messes up his hair before public appearances to maintain his “lovable buffoon” image. Dominic Cummings, his adviser², dresses scruffily³, which suits his persona as the “eccentric genius”. It is hard to imagine any woman reaching a position of political power while adopting a similar style.

伪装成玩笑的耍流氓仍然是耍流氓。他们还必须容忍不同的着装标准。英国首相鲍里斯?约翰逊经常在公开露面前把头发弄乱，以保持他“可爱的小丑”形象。他的顾问多米尼克?卡明斯穿着邋遢，这正符合他作为“古怪天才”的形象。很难想象有哪位女性在获得政治权力的同时还采取类似的风格。

Sometimes the excuse for the lack of female progress in certain professions is that women and men naturally choose to pursue different career paths. Yet those outcomes may simply be the result of formal or informal barriers against female success. At the end of the 19th century, when only 4-5% of American doctors were women, some men no doubt put this down to a lack of aptitude⁴. Many medical schools, perhaps sharing that preconception, did not admit female candidates; Harvard’s began accepting women only after the second world war. In Britain women were not allowed to become practising lawyers until they were admitted to the Law Society in 1922.

有时候，女性在某些职业上缺乏进步的借口是，女性和男性自然会选择不同的职业道路。然而，这些结果可能只是对女性成功的正式或非正式阻碍的结果。在19世纪末，美国医生中只有4-5%是女性，毫无疑问，一些男性认为这是因为缺乏资质。许多医学院，也许也有同样的偏见，不招收女性候选人；哈佛是在二战后才开始接受女性的。在英国，直到1922年女性才被允许加入律师协会，才被允许成为执业律师。

In both professions the playing field was eventually levelled. The result? In 2017 more women were admitted to American medical schools than men for the first time. By 2018 half of British solicitors⁵ were female.

在这两种职业中，竞争环境最终变得公平了。结果是什么？2017年，进入美国医学院的女性首次超过男性。到2018年，一半的英国律师是女性。

Another common argument is that it makes sense for married people to specialise, with the man taking on higher-paid employment and the woman doing more of the chores. It is equally dubious⁶. One study, for instance, found that husbands who earn less than their wives do even less housework than those who earn more.

另一种常见的说法是，已婚人士各自分工是有道理的，因为男性承担的工作报酬更高，而女性承担的家务更多。同样值得怀疑。例如，一项研究发现，挣得比妻子少的丈夫做的家务活甚至比挣得多的丈夫还要少。

Many of the arguments that women’s lack of progress is down to aptitude or choice look like a convenient fiction for men, who do rather well out of the bargain. Women, who end up doing most of the chores as well as working long hours, get a raw deal. It is not them who need to change—it is the attitudes of men.

许多认为女性缺乏进步是由于天资或选择的观点，对男性来说似乎是一种方便的虚构，因为男性在其中获利颇丰。女性受到不公平的待遇，在长时间工作的同时还要做大部分家务。不是女性需要改变，而是人们的态度需要改变。

1 bullying   

v.恐吓，威逼( bully的现在分词 )；豪；跋扈

参考例句：

• Many cases of bullying go unreported . 很多恐吓案件都没有人告发。
• All cases of bullying will be severely dealt with. 所有以大欺小的情况都将受到严肃处理。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

3 scruffily   

adv.不整洁地；邋遢地

参考例句：

4 aptitude   

n.(学习方面的)才能，资质，天资

参考例句：

• That student has an aptitude for mathematics.那个学生有数学方面的天赋。
• As a child,he showed an aptitude for the piano.在孩提时代，他显露出对于钢琴的天赋。

5 solicitors   

初级律师( solicitor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Most solicitors in England and Wales are in private practice . 英格兰和威尔士的大多数律师都是私人执业者。
• The family has instructed solicitors to sue Thomson for compensation. 那家人已经指示律师起诉汤姆森，要求赔偿。

6 dubious   

adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• What he said yesterday was dubious.他昨天说的话很含糊。
• He uses some dubious shifts to get money.他用一些可疑的手段去赚钱。