职场英语：女性的领导力或比男性更强

 　　ONE by one, the glittering prizes are falling to women. General Motors, IBM, PepsiCo, Lockheed Martin and DuPont are among a couple of dozen giant American companies with female bosses. Oxford¹ University is about to follow the footsteps of Harvard and appoint its first female leader. Women still have an enormous way to go: the New York Times points out that more big American firms are run by men called John than by women. But the trend is clear: women now make up more than 50% of university graduates and of new hires by big employers.

　　一个接一个，闪耀的光环正好落在了女性头上。通用汽车、IBM、百事、洛克希德·马丁和杜邦等几十家美国巨头企业的现任老板都是女性。牛津大学即将跟随哈佛大学的脚步，任命第一位女校长。但女性仍然有很长的路要走：据《纽约时报》指出，美国的大公司中，光是叫约翰的男老板就比女老板的总数多。但趋势一目了然：在大学毕业生和大公司新聘的职员中，女性人数已经超过一半。

　　Will this growing cadre of female bosses manage any differently from men? Forty years ago feminists² would have found the very question demanding. Pioneers such as Margaret Thatcher³ argued that women could and would do the same job as men, if given a chance. But today some management scholars argue that women excel in the leadership qualities most valued in modern firms.

　　由女老板组成的骨干队伍在不断壮大。她们对企业的管理与男性会有任何不同吗?40年前，女权主义者会觉得这样的问题很贬低人。玛格丽特撒切尔这类先锋曾主张，如果给予女性机会，她们能胜任也愿意做与男性同样的工作。但今天，一些管理学者认为，在现代企业最为重视的领袖特质上，女性更胜一筹。

　　Those who say women are better suited to taking charge of today’s companies also lean on two other arguments. The first is that women are better at “androgynous” management-that is, combining supposedly “male” and “female” characteristics into a powerful mixture. This is particularly valuable in business undergoing great upheaval⁴, which need a combination of command-and-control and caring-and-sharing. The second is that women differ from men not so much in their leadership style as in the values that they bring to the job. They are much more influenced by compassion⁵ and fairness than men.

　　那些认为女性更适合掌管当今企业的人还依赖另两个观点。首先是女性更擅长“中性化”管理，即把一般认为属于“男性”或“女性”的特征合并成一种强大的混合物。在正经历巨变的企业中，这尤其有用，因为这些企业需要指令控制型和关怀分享型领导的结合。其次，女性和男性在给他们的工作带来价值上的差异要多于他们在领导风格上的差异。同情心和公平公正对女性的影响远多于对男性的影响。

　　That leads to the second consideration: that both male and female managers are perfectly⁶ capable of adapting their leadership styles to meet changing circumstances. Male managers are increasingly embracing a collaborative approach to leadership, as they adapt to a society that has become less deferential⁷. In a 2013 study of 917 managers in Norway-a country that has led the way in female-friendly policies, from board quotas⁸ to public child care-Ann Grethe Solberb, a sociologist⁹, concluded that: “Men and women don’t have different styles of leadership.”

　　这就导向了第二种考察：男性和女性主管都很善于调整自己的领导风格来适应变化的环境。男性主管正在适应一个不再那么讲究恭敬顺从的社会，他们越来越多地采纳协作的领导方式。2013年，社会学家安妮·格雷特·索尔贝格(Anne Grethe Solberg)在一项对挪威917名主管的调研中总结道：“男性和女性的领导风格并无不同。”从董事会的女性比例到公共儿童保健等等，挪威在女性友好政策上都走在世界的前列。

1 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

2 feminists   

n.男女平等主义者，女权扩张论者( feminist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Only 16 percent of young women in a 1990 survey considered themselves feminists. 在1990年的一项调查中，只有16%的年轻女性认为自己是女权主义者。 来自辞典例句
• The organization had many enemies, most notably among feminists. 这个组织有许多敌人，特别是在男女平等主义者中。 来自辞典例句

3 thatcher   

n.茅屋匠

参考例句：

• Tom Sawyer was in the skiff that bore Judge Thatcher. 汤姆 - 索亚和撒切尔法官同乘一条小艇。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
• Mrs. Thatcher was almost crazed; and Aunt Polly, also. 撒切尔夫人几乎神经失常，还有波莉姨妈也是。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险

4 upheaval   

n.胀起，(地壳)的隆起；剧变，动乱

参考例句：

• It was faced with the greatest social upheaval since World War Ⅱ.它面临第二次世界大战以来最大的社会动乱。
• The country has been thrown into an upheaval.这个国家已经陷入动乱之中。

5 compassion   

n.同情，怜悯

参考例句：

• He could not help having compassion for the poor creature.他情不自禁地怜悯起那个可怜的人来。
• Her heart was filled with compassion for the motherless children.她对于没有母亲的孩子们充满了怜悯心。

6 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

7 deferential   

adj. 敬意的，恭敬的

参考例句：

• They like five-star hotels and deferential treatment.他们喜欢五星级的宾馆和毕恭毕敬的接待。
• I am deferential and respectful in the presence of artists.我一向恭敬、尊重艺术家。

8 quotas   

（正式限定的）定量( quota的名词复数 )； 定额； 指标； 摊派

参考例句：

• In fulfilling the production quotas, John made rings round all his fellow workers. 约翰完成生产定额大大超过他的同事们。
• Quotas of the means of production are allocated by the higher administrative bodies to the lower ones. 物资指标按隶属关系分配。

9 sociologist   

n.研究社会学的人，社会学家

参考例句：

• His mother was a sociologist,researching socialism.他的母亲是个社会学家，研究社会主义。
• Max Weber is a great and outstanding sociologist.马克斯·韦伯是一位伟大的、杰出的社会学家。