If there was enough time, I could recount centuries of discrimination against women. 要是时间足够的话，我还可以再历数一下几百年来人们对女性的歧视，

Or I could just slap the person across the face. 甚至可以为此抽这些人一耳光。

It was a no-win situation. I couldn't deny being a woman. 这是个不可能赢的局面，我不能不接受自己是个女人的事实。

And defending myself just made me seem ... defensive. 而且，为自己辩护只会让我显得喜欢反驳别人。

My gut and the signals I received from others cautioned me that arguing the issue would make me sound like a strident feminist. 我的直觉以及别人传递出的信号都在提醒我，为了这个问题争论，只会让自己看起来更像一个观点尖锐的女权主义者。

And I still did not want that. 我不希望这样，

I also worried that pointing out the disadvantages women face in the workforce might be misinterpreted as whining or asking for special treatment. 我也担心指出职场女性面临的种种不利，会被误读成要求给女性以特殊待遇。

So I ignored the comments. I put my head down and worked hard. 所以，我忽视了这些议论，只是低下头，努力地工作。

Then, as the years ticked by, I started seeing female friends and colleagues drop out of the workforce. 时间一年年地过去，我开始发现我周围的女性朋友和女同事正在慢慢退出职场。

Some left by choice. Others left out of frustration, pushed out the door by companies that did not allow flexibility 有些人是自己选择离开的；有些人是出于绝望和沮丧而被迫离开那些工作时间不容变通的公司，

and welcomed home by partners who weren't doing their share of the housework and child rearing. 回到缺乏伴侣理解与支持的家里；

Others remained but scaled back their ambitions to meet outsized demands. 还有些人留在职场，但收敛了自己的事业心，不再想走得更远、更高。

I watched as the promise my generation had for female leadership dwindled. 我亲眼看着我们这一代的女性领导者的前景正在变得黯淡。

By the time I had been at Google for a few years, I realized that the problem wasn't going away. 在谷歌工作了几年后，我意识到这个问题仍然存在，

So even though the thought still scared me, I decided it was time to stop putting my head down and to start speaking out. 所以即使心里有些害怕，但我还是认为自己不能只顾着埋头苦干，而是应该站出来勇敢地表达内心的想法。