2020年经济学人 德国妈妈的工作(1)

Employment in Germany

德国就业

Nature v nurture¹

先天V后天

Why east and west German women still work vastly different hours?

妇女的工作时长在东德和西德差距为何如此之大？

Scholars are often greatly excited by "natural experiments", events that end up separating two groups of people, allowing wonks to compare their subsequent behaviour. Much like the study of twins adopted into different households, the postwar division and eventual² reunification of Germany could be seen as such an experiment. A report by the German Institute for Economic Research on working mothers, published ahead of the 30th anniversary of reunification on October 3rd, reveals the interplay between policy and attitudes that influences the decision to work.

学者们通常醉心于“自然实验”，这种实验最后会把实验人员分开，让书呆子们能够对比他们接下来的行为。就像对“被不同家庭收养的双胞胎”的研究一样，战后德国的分裂和最终的统一也可以被视为这样一种实验。在10月3日德国统一30周年纪念日到来之前，德国经济研究所发布了一则有关“职业妈妈”的报道，该报道揭示了影响工作决定的政策和态度之间的相互作用。

When the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the east united with the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) in 1990, the mothers of young children led very different lives. Life expectancy³ and incomes were much lower in the east, but communism did at least seem to lead to greater gender⁴ equality in labour-market outcomes. Encouraged by state policies and party ideology⁵, mothers were almost as likely to work as fathers, and most worked full-time⁶. In the west, where state and church encouraged mums to stay at home, less than half were in paid employment, and most of those worked part-time.

在1990年东部的德意志民主共和国和德意志联邦共和国合并之时，年幼子女的妈妈们过着截然不同的生活，东德的预期寿命和收入较低，不过对于劳动力市场结果来说，共产主义至少维护了在性别平等方面作出了贡献。在国家政策和政党意识形态的鼓励下，妈妈们几乎和爸爸们一样愿意工作，而且大多是全职工作。在西德，政府和教会鼓励妈妈们呆在家里，只有不到一半的妈妈们有带薪工作，而且大多是兼职。

Three decades on, how has the picture changed? Two things stand out. First, behaviour has changed drastically since unification: the share of eastern women with young children working full-time fell from over half in 1990 to just under a third in 2018. More women across Germany are working part-time. Second, east-west differences still exist. The share of eastern mums in full-time work is more than double that in the west. As a result, whereas women in the east earn 7% less than men, the gap in the west is 22%. The report argues that policy and attitudes together explain these trends.

30年过去了，情况发生了怎样的变化？有两点很突出。首先，自两德统一以来，人们的行为发生了巨大的变化：有年幼子女的东德女性全职工作的比例1990年时为一半以上，而2018年则下降到不足三分之一。德国有越来越多的女性从事兼职工作。第二，东西方差距依然存在。东德全职妈妈的比例是西德的两倍多。结果就是，东德女性的收入比男性少7%，而西德男女收入的差距是22%。该报道认为，造成这些趋势的原因是政策和态度。

1 nurture   

n.养育，照顾，教育；滋养，营养品；vt.养育，给与营养物，教养，扶持

参考例句：

• The tree grows well in his nurture.在他的培育下这棵树长得很好。
• The two sisters had received very different nurture.这俩个姊妹接受过极不同的教育。

2 eventual   

adj.最后的，结局的，最终的

参考例句：

• Several schools face eventual closure.几所学校面临最终关闭。
• Both parties expressed optimism about an eventual solution.双方对问题的最终解决都表示乐观。

3 expectancy   

n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额

参考例句：

• Japanese people have a very high life expectancy.日本人的平均寿命非常长。
• The atomosphere of tense expectancy sobered everyone.这种期望的紧张气氛使每个人变得严肃起来。

4 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。

5 ideology   

n.意识形态，(政治或社会的)思想意识

参考例句：

• The ideology has great influence in the world.这种思想体系在世界上有很大的影响。
• The ideal is to strike a medium between ideology and inspiration.我的理想是在意识思想和灵感鼓动之间找到一个折衷。

6 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。