向前一步:第203期 让我们开始讨论吧(9)

 Staring at the blank computer screen, I was at a complete loss. 我盯着空白的电脑屏幕，脑子里也一片空白。

I had never spoken about being a woman in public before. Not once. 我从来没有公开地做过关于女性问题的演讲，一次也没有。

I had no talking points or notes to turn to. 没有演讲思路，也没有什么可以参考的资料，

Then I realized how striking this was ... and that I actually had quite a lot to say. 我绞尽脑汁，终于想到了第二天要说的内容。

I began my talk the next day by explaining that in business we are taught to fit in, 第二天演讲一开始，我就说道，我们常常被要求融入公司环境和商业背景中，

but that I was starting to think this might not be the right approach. 但我觉得这也许并不是正确的方式。

I said out loud that there are differences between men and women both in their behavior and in the way their behavior is perceived by others. 男性和女性在行为上有很多差异，给别人造成的印象和感觉也多有不同。

I admitted that I could see these dynamics² playing out in the workforce³, and that, in order to fix the problems, 为了解决问题，女性必须谈论性别问题，同时还要注意方式方法，

we needed to be able to talk about gender⁴ without people thinking we were crying for help, asking for special treatment, or about to sue. 不能让大家认为我们是在哭喊着索取帮助、要求特殊待遇甚至是要打官司。

A lot poured out of me that day. 那天我说了很多。

Then I returned to Northern California and put the conversation on hold. 演讲结束后我回到北加州，没再多想。

In the following four years, I gave two talks on women in the workplace, 此后4年里，我针对女性专业群体做了两次关于职场女性的演讲，

both behind closed doors to professional women's groups at nearby Stanford. 地点都在斯坦福大学。

Then one day, Pat Mitchell called to tell me that she was launching TEDWomen and invited me to speak on social media. 之后有一天，帕特·米切尔打电话告诉我，她要发起TED¹女性峰会，邀请我就社交媒体的主题做演讲。

I told her I had another subject in mind and started pulling together a talk on how women can succeed in the workforce 我告诉她我脑子里已经有另一个主题了，然后我们合作组织了一次演讲，主题是关于女性怎样才能在职场上取得成功

(a talk that TED later named "Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders"). （这次TED演讲后来被命名为“为什么我们的女性领导者那么少”）。

Very quickly, I became excited. And just as quickly, I learned that no one else shared my excitement. 我因此变得心情激动，但也很快意识到无人能分享这种激动：

 

1 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

2 dynamics   

n.力学，动力学，动力，原动力；动态

参考例句：

• In order to succeed,you must master complicated knowledge of dynamics.要取得胜利，你必须掌握很复杂的动力学知识。
• Dynamics is a discipline that cannot be mastered without extensive practice.动力学是一门不做大量习题就不能掌握的学科。

3 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

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。